Bolton Culverts, and disused railway bridge

[Kula]

Hi guys, i've got a few pictures here from a few explorations me and friend took. The River Croal flows underneath Bolton town centre at three points...

The first tunnel is quite short and can be walked through in about 1 minute

http://img53.exs.cx/img53/5490/img42283fl.jpg
http://img53.exs.cx/img53/4337/img42312sj.jpg

The second tunnel goes under the main part of town and takes around 5 minutes to walk through

http://img92.exs.cx/img92/5425/img42484dt.jpg
http://img92.exs.cx/img92/6509/img42503qj.jpg

The third tunnel is the most modern and is about half a mile long

http://img92.exs.cx/img92/2982/img42795ki.jpg
http://img92.exs.cx/img92/2006/img43311je.jpg
http://img92.exs.cx/img92/576/img43350mc.jpg

The final tunnel is perfectly straight and quite short.

http://img92.exs.cx/img92/8066/img42853xb.jpg


Before I went through the tunnels I managed to explore a disused railway track...

http://img53.exs.cx/img53/487/img41480rs.jpg

The track is completely covered in small trees and plants and took me at least half an hour just to walk a few hundred metres

Here's another view, looking across to the railway line that it eventually joins on to...

http://img53.exs.cx/img53/8261/img41431nt.jpg

[Damon]

Nothing like that is really bothered with up here.

There's miles of old canal systems which used to be the main coal routes in the early part of the 20th century, now mostly ignored except for small stretches still in water. Some parts were obliterated for roads etc.

Shame really, because there are some really interesting features, such as aqueducts, the remains of tiered locks, and a huge breach in the Irwell Valley that effectively closed 1/3 of the whole system permanently.

Locks
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/damon.hunt/Urbex/ManchesterBoltonBuryCanal/photos/photo30.jpg

A little info on the 1936 Breach, with pics then & now (http://penninewaterways.co.uk/mbb/mbbc30.htm). I have higher res pics of the breach from 2006.

Also a link to a gallery (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/damon.hunt/Urbex/ManchesterBoltonBuryCanal/index.html)of other pics from the area including the aqueducts, and in-water sections around the breach area.