Roy B

Hi there folks, Well the mini season was so close to making it to the last meeting. We did very well to get that far against all odds. Many, many thanks to all involved. Fingers crossed for 2021. Now it’s about time to start our winter season journeys off that beaten track once again. Our industrial and historical heritage is fast disappearing under a sea of housing and regeneration. It is literally a race against time to capture a brief look into the past. Let’s start for now though with a look at another race track in the ‘What was there before?’ series. To celebrate its saving we start off this week with the early days of the Birmingham Wheels site. This side by side image shows the site in 1888 & 2020 Image credit to NLOS continues below:

Within days folks. The ghosts of the past are waiting for us along the disused railway line, at the end of the tunnel, and within the walls of the derelict building. They will walk with us again off that beaten track.

Pics now in the gallery

Thank you Jane and Darrelle. It was a wet'un by the sound of it. JJ's second Final win in adverse conditions following on from that extremely wet Belle Vue in April 2018.

Gates open at 10 tomorrow DJB

No pit access today folks

Yes, thank you Ben and Nic for last week 👍

Hope this cheers you up Jane. He behaved himself tonight. Hope you feel better soon.

Many thanks to Ben for volunteering and doing a sterling job at the track, & to Nic for being Jane.

Thank you Jane, but you have to work equally as hard giving up your free time to post them. Also folks thanks for the kind words regarding the mini race reports. Hopefully these can go some way to fill the gap owing to the obvious loss of the pit news. Pics now in the gallery. If anyone can post a few, plus results from Skeggy next Saturday it would be a great help as i'm at Taunton for the two-dayer. You'll have no problem hearing them as Speaky has got the the p.a system spot on.

I've sent you a pm Jane

Yes that's fine Neil. Just let me know as and when 👍

Great pics, and a very tidy workshop. What compost are you using to grow those two wings in the back garden? 😃

I have some results from 1993 Neil if you still require them. Also i have 1992 stuff but it's mainly Heat and Final winners only, and not from every meeting, if that's of any use to you.

Pics now in gallery

Pit news using night vision goggles: 401 - Left half shaft sheared inside diff. Loading up. 147 - Straightening the front axle. 127 - Adjusting the brake balance bar.

Pit news using binoculars: 217 - Adjusting outside rear spring 43 - Changing front hub. Stub axle bent.

Pics now in the gallery. Only a few unfortunately owing to the restriction on pit access.

The cream has risen to the top folks. In the new gradings Jon is up to Superstar, and Harley goes straight from white to red! Subject to confirmation V8's are on the bill too, so we'll be halfway to seeing an F1 around there.

( continued from above) Before heading up to Taunton for day two a repeat visit to the disused tailings dam close to the United Downs stadium. It resembles another planet with all sorts of weird colours and eroded gulleys. Smeatharpe – Monday 17th August 2020. Torrential rain proceeded the meeting up to start time leaving the track very wet. 36 cars containing travellers from all corners of the UK filled the pits. One of which was Luke Wrench (560) who had got his dummy back in, and realised that maybe he had been a bit hasty in his views. Heat one: Thanks to Luke’s attendance a feature of this race was a tremendous duel between the 560 car and Sunday’s Final winner Jon Palmer (24). For lap after lap the WRC built cars raced side by side with Jon on the outside gaining the extra traction coming out of the bends. Luke would draw alongside at the end of the straight and Jon would edge ahead again. It was resolved in the 24’s favour as 560 backed off near the end. In the meantime, up front, Ben Goddard (895) had worked his way into the top position and claimed his second win of the season. Result: 895, 24, 560, 126, 736, 538, 539, 488, 251 and 992. Heat two: Dale Moon (302) and Matt Linfield (464) battled for the lead in this one with wet track specialist Linfield not willing to risk a last bender on the 302 car. Result: 302, 464, 572, 542, 184, 783, 320, 183,890 and 828. Consolation: Wayne Wadge (920) led from flag to flag to win by a quarter of a lap from Paul Moss (979), who had the attentions of Justin Fisher (315) and Ben Borthwick (418) to contend with. Result: 920, 979, 315, 418, 210, 325, 387, 411, 731 and 835. Final: A couple of caution periods in the early laps of this one. Scottish visitor Jason McDonald (387) was left stranded across turn three. Within short order Sam Jacklin (731) needed the waved yellows after being cannoned into the plating by Jon Palmer to slow himself down after a hit from Steven Gilbert (542). At the restart Harley Burns (992) led the field away in confident style. Nothing seems to faze young Harley and he is a joy to watch. Eventually the 24 and 542 cars overhauled Burnsy, but Gilbert was unable to relax as 992 tracked his every move. He even rode out a last bend hit from Jamie Avery (126). Great stuff! Wrench, the track points leader saw his hopes ended after he had a spat with Guinchy (183). It ended with Luke making sure Charlie would go no further. Payback will be very interesting! “Really dry yesterday, really wet today,” a jubilant Palmer said. “Gilbert had a go early in the race but I offloaded his hit into Jacklin” Result: 24, 542, 992, 126, 539, 418, 464, 736, 302 and 783. GN: This race was for the Ash Sampson Memorial Trophy. Sampson’s grandfathers, Roy Goodman and Mick Whittle led the first of two rolling laps in Ash’s old cars. Roy who is in his nineties jumped in and out of the car like a young’un. Incredible! Another victory chalked up to Harley in this with Wadge following him home to claim the August Accumulator title. JP’s charge through the field from the lap handicap was spectacular with the front bumper seeing prodigious use. Result: 992, 920, 184, 539, 736, 890, 210, 126, 560 and 783. Hard luck story of the meeting goes to Bolton’s Phil Mann (53). He was unable to race owing to a hose blowing on the van which mean’t the first half of the meeting was spent trying to sort it. Saloon numbers were a bit thin on the ground. Billy Smith (161) has attended every meeting in the country since the start of the year. He was by far the entertainer tonight. Junior Buster (902) was on the receiving end of some very big hits every race as Billy went on the rampage. “He’s going up the wall all night,” were Billy’s words. Final top three: 980, 476 and 28. So ended yet another superb couple of meetings. Many thanks once again to all. A few pics in the gallery from St.Day.

MR “BOX OFFICE” BAGS BACK TO BACK FINAL WINS Jon Palmer (24) at the United Downs Raceway with the first of his two weekend Final wins In the latest F2 racing action in the south-west Plymouth’s Jon Palmer (24) makes a clean sweep of the meeting Final’s at United Downs, & Smeatharpe in the third Sunday-Monday double. United Downs Raceway – Sunday 16th August 2020. With the non-appearance of the predicted thunder storms a very entertaining afternoon’s racing took place on a dry track. 35 cars were on hand to do battle around this tricky five cornered Cornish pasty shaped track. Furthest traveller this week was red roofed Jason McDonald (387) from Turriff in Aberdeenshire. A mammoth 1400 mile round trip, with 12 hours driving each way. That is total commitment. From northern England Phil Mann (53), Aaron Vaight (184) and Sam Jacklin (731) also put the miles in to support Autospeed’s endeavour to get the racing scene back to some normality. No, you haven’t misread Sam Jacklin in an F2. He’s sold the F.1’s and is making life a bit easier running the smaller cars. A neat reversal of his racing number and job sorted. Heat one: Teenage sensation Harley Burns (992), on his track debut, led from early on to record the victory. 184 ended piled up with Dale Moon (302) and Matt Westaway (835) on the inside of turn four. Result: 992, 920, 572, 24, 736, 542, 663, and 828. First 8 to the Final. Heat two: Steve Hartnett (539) took another win for the lower grades in this one. A tremendous no-holds barred battle was raging in the mid pack culminating with Charlie Guinchard firing Joe Marquand (789) into the plating with a last bend hit for 5th place. Result: 539, 315, 895, 126, 183, 689, 979 and 325. Consolation: A fair few blue and red graded drivers had to try for a second chance to qualify in this race. 302 got the victory, whilst a battle between Paul Rice (890), Matt Hatch (320) and McDonald ended with the Scotsman claiming the last qualifying place. Result: 302, 127, 184, 418, 538, 251, 464, 196, 820 and 387 Final: Twenty-six cars gridded to try and win the Nostalgia Trophy. The race was punctuated with caution flags such was the fierce action. Justin Fisher (315) ended up side on to the traffic by the start line, Julian Coombes (828) climbed up Phil Chapman’s car (196) with both jammed up against the turn four plating, and then Ben Goddard (895,) and Craig Driscoll (251) repeated the trick. Whilst all this had been going on young Burnsy had been maintaining the lead. Another caution flew when Josh Weare (736) hit the stranded cars of James Lindsay (572) and Chris Hatch (820) who were stuck in turn four. Just prior to the yellows Guinchy launched British Champ Steven Gilbert (542) into the pile. This led to much gnashing of teeth and finger waving at Charlie from Steve’s dad Peter. The star men had worked their way closer to the front by this stage and at the drop of the green Harley had but a couple of laps before Jon Palmer (24) appeared in his mirrors. Having bashed his way through the field Jon passed the 992 car cleanly. As much as he tried he was unable to shake the youngster off, but owing to his unfamiliarity with the circuit, and not wanting to throw away a secure 2nd place Harley decided against a last bender. JP commented after his victory that the 992 car was the quicker of the two. Despite his incident with 183 Gilbert finished in 3rd place. He wasn’t too complementary about Charlie in the post-race interview either. He needn’t have been worried about more of the same in the GN though as the engine blew up in the 183 car before race end. The Guinchard team are going through some rotten luck at the moment. Result: 24, 992, 542, 302, 689, 538, 387, 126, 325 and 539. GN: Burns took his second victory of the day with Gilbert following him home. Result: 992, 542, 302, 184, 418, 538, 920, 24, 320 and 251. Last week Luke Wrench (560) stressed his desire to claim all three track championships in the south-west. This week he spat his dummy out and cancelled his bookings for both meetings. He wasn’t happy about the lower graders earning more points than him in the August Accumulator series owing to the multiplication factor. He knew the point scoring system of the series at the start so to criticise it when it’s over halfway through doesn’t make much sense to me. Fifteen Saloons were in attendance. Notable incidents were the continuing entertainment between 161 v 902 which saw Billy spin Buster out in heat one, and then the rear end destruction of the Phil Powell (199) car at the front of a four car train entering turn four in the Final. This required the attention of the Autospeed fence repair team to fix the plating. Final top three: 902, 161, and 00. (continues below)

Thanks lads!

Cheers Hary. It's good to have you back.

(continued from above) The W.H.Shaw Loom Works site before demolition. Pic credit to the Lone Ranger. Up until a few weeks ago you would have come to the old W.H.Shaw’s Dobcross Loom Works on your left hand side. This was the most impressive building in Diggle. The loom works were built in 1860, with the main chimney added in 1863. The centre-piece was the office building built in 1890.It was known locally as “The Cathedral” and had a Gothic style 4-stage clock tower. This was connected to the works by a link bridge. The works were extended between 1890 and 1900. The company was a world leader in the manufacture of textile machinery, and the “Dobcross Loom” was exported worldwide in the late 19th century. A lot of the original buildings were lost due to a huge fire in 1925. Serious reconstruction followed with the addition of a water tower. The buildings were used for munitions in World War 1, and for making parts for Russian submarines in World War 2. Between 1969 & 2006 the site became the one of the largest pallet works in Europe. It last saw use as an injection moulding business. There was a huge auction at the site in March 2007. Just a few of the items sold: Eight fork lift trucks, pallet trucks, Climax 90 Sideloader, Rolls Royce diesel generator, Ford tractor, gas fired steam boilers, Atlas air compressors, pressure washers, Mig Tig welders, power hacksaws, three Scania sleeper cab tractor units, Leyland Daf 85 330 shunter and a Ford Transit 190 dropside tipper. The factory even had its own buses. In 2015 an application for planning permission to demolish the existing buildings on site, and construct a new school were submitted. In July 2019 the plans were approved with the exception of demolishing the office building, clock tower and link bridge. These have been given Grade-II listed status. On an earlier visit to the area to do a reccy for access to the tunnel i had a look around the works. Much to my now deepest regret I didn’t have a camera with me on that day. The industrial delights this place had to offer were superb. There was a mixture of different buildings all with their own character. Some of the floors were like a skating rink with all the plastic beads left behind from the injection moulding business. The ground floor of the admin block was simply stunning. Plush carpets throughout, tiled walls, stained glass windows and a very high standard of fixtures and fittings. A wonderful decorative cast iron spiral staircase led to the upper floor. The owner of the pallet business was offered thousands for this but would never sell. He appreciated the grandeur and history in that part of the site. The Victorian clock in the tower was a thing of beauty. This had been looked after by Maurice Brayford, a retired chap who used to enjoy keeping it going even after closure. He would visit the clock three times a week to keep it wound and check everything was in order. He managed to replace a worn out part of the clock mechanism by fettling a metal insert from an old Wellington boot. It fitted perfectly to within a thousandth of an inch! Time is standing still now though. In 2015 vandals smashed and bent a major part of the mechanism. The internal workings have been left irreparably damaged. Maurice was left devastated as the clock had become part of his family over the years. It got him out of the house and gave him something to look forward to doing. It literally brings tears to my eyes to think how heartbroken he must have been. Metal thieves have ransacked the site over the years and lead flashings/slates have been removed from the buildings. When I returned to photograph the tunnel i planned a repeat visit to the works. Too late!! The demolition gang were on site which made access highly dangerous. Conveniently the listed connecting bridge between offices and works “accidently” ended up being torn down. Apparently one end of it was attached to an unlisted building and when that went down it took the bridge with it. This great pic shows the old tunnel arrowed, the canal, and the W.H.Shaw's site as a train heads for Manchester I’ve been back since and the site is now cleared apart from the clock tower etc. I’m kicking myself for not having a camera with me that first time. A missed opportunity for sure. This is the second time this has happened. I went (with camera this time!) to have a mooch around inside 10 Shop at the Crewe Locomotive Works. Guess what? Demolition day again!! Pics of all this write up in the gallery. That’s it for now folks. Thank you for coming along with me on these travels through this extended close season period. Back with plenty more at the end of this short F1 season. Nic isn’t going back racing just yet so Jane and I will be doing the results. Whilst the pits are out of bounds i’ll try and get a bit of pit news, and a few pics using binoculars and a zoom lens! Cheers, keep safe, Roy

(continued from above) Let’s go and have a look at the tunnel then. We make our start from Diggle which is in a very picturesque setting in the foothills of the Pennines. It was an important centre of the woollen and textile trade. The Huddersfield Narrow Canal enters Standedge tunnel here. The tunnel took sixteen years to build using only gunpowder, picks and shovels. It was opened in 1811 and was used extensively until the last working boat passed through from Dewsbury to Mossley in 1921. Its decline for goods movement came about with the advent of the railways. In addition to this there is no towpath so the boats had to be legged through by the crew. They had to lie on the top of the boat and walk it through along the walls or roof of the tunnel. It is the longest and deepest in the country, and can take a modern diesel powered narrow-boat up to two hours to get through the three and a quarter mile distance. In the mid 1800’s there were inevitable delays as queues formed at both ends. By the mid 1970’s the canal was derelict and partially filled in, but thankfully a team of volunteers were successful in obtaining funding to restore it. Re-opening came in 2001. Walking alongside the canal and the main line we come to Diggle Junction signal box. Opened in 1885 it is still functional today, but living on borrowed time. A staff redundancy occurred in 2005 when Marmalade the signal box cat was given early retirement. He had transferred from Brewery Sidings box at Miles Platting in 1998. This was at a time when the railways still looked after their valued employees! As we get closer to our goal we cross under the main line via a brick built foot tunnel. This was constructed by the railway company to enable farmers and mill workers access to both sides. The disused track-bed now becomes very overgrown. In winter it is a quagmire and you invariably end up wading through a thick layer of muddy soup. As the tunnel comes into view the first thing you’ll notice is the absolute blackness within. Time to get those torches out folks. To be honest they will only illuminate a very small area in front of you as the darkness just swallows the light. I take a construction site floodlight alongside a Lenser P7 (other makes are available). The only way to get decent photos in these places is to use the light painting technique. I’ll go into what’s needed and how in a future post. The roof of the tunnel has a nice layer of soot interspersed with calcite straw stalactites. These form from the minerals leaching through the brickwork/mortar. At ground level there are flowstone deposits forming on the old track-bed. They are a brilliant white colour and are made by calcite rich water dripping from the tunnel roof. There are high-level rows of cable hanger brackets attached to the walls, and rail chair screw bolts lying around. The tunnel is 329 yards (300 metres) long and has a gentle curve to the south end. This far end has been back-filled and landscaped externally. An eerie mist appeared very briefly when I was down that end. There was no change in temperature, or any holes through the brickwork to the outside. It disappeared as quickly as it came so can only surmise it was a ghostly presence from the past! A lot of these tunnels saw death and injury when they were built and have a reputation for being haunted. I didn’t turn around when i heard the footsteps!! At regular intervals there are refuges set back into the walls to enable the platelayers and permanent way gang to get to safety when a train came thundering through. A number on a ceramic plate attached to the back-wall of the refuge helped to identify how far into the tunnel the gang were. Back outside we can climb up the embankment and have a look at the parapet over the tunnel portal. The coping stones have become dislodged and part of it has fallen onto the track-bed below. Walking back to Diggle gives an opportunity to see the skill of the canal builders with a number of locks alongside us. There is an even older foot tunnel (late 1700’s) here which goes under the canal. (continues below)