Thread: Dudley Railway/Freightliner Tunnel

I know this has been done on here before, but I went through the other day and took a few shots, so thought I'd post em.

( Took a couple of torches and did a bit of 'light painting' - Like a knob, I forgot my remote shutter release!
so for a few shots on the bulb setting, I had to sit there with my finger on the shutter, whilst with the other hand
fanning a big torch around the place, but trying not to shake the camera! Stuck to max 30 second exposure most of the time which to be honest, is well ample enough )

My personal favourite is the second picture (it looks a lot better full-size )

The tunnel isn't straight, and therefore you can't see right through to the other end, so as a result,
it is very dark in there... So don't be fooled by some of pics and think it's quite light inside.
If anyone visits, ( and it's well worth it ), defo take a couple of big torches!
...and... my tip of the day... a little miners-style torch for your head, so you can see the camera controls (it really cuts out a lot of hassles, having your hands free)

Oooh I'm loving this, I so want to get in there with my gear.

Cheers BlackShuck, yeah defo worth a visit... what kinda gear have you got? (if you don't mind me asking)

I mean Camera Gear and general exploring gear!! Tripod torches and lighting gel packs etc. Love a bit of Long exposure photography.

---------- Post added at 15:44 ---------- Previous post was at 15:42 ----------

Originally Posted by Black Shuck

I mean Camera Gear and general exploring gear!! Tripod torches and lighting gel packs etc. Love a bit of Long exposure photography.

I pack a 4D Maglite, P7 Lenser, Headlight, First Aid Kit, two way radios, and a Fujifine pix S200 EXR, that soon will be upgraded to a newer HS20! oh and my tripod too!!

sounds like you know what you're doing there dude! Look forward to seeing your pics

Ok cheers Fisha, I'll bang the shots up when I get done.

Hmmm how long is this tunnel yardage wise?

lol, I had to look this up, cuss I wasn't exactly sure! It's 949 yards.

I do know that it was completed around 1850. Dudley Railway Station itself, was built on a horse racing course (so that had to close, obviously!) and I'm sure I read somewhere that Brunnel was employed by the railway company that built the tunnel. The station was closed in the mid 60's due to the infamous Beeching axe. In the late 60's, it later found new life as a freightliner deopot, but closed around 1989, even though it was making more profit than the depot in Birmingham, which remained open! Of course, there are now plans to run the Midlands Metro along the route and up into Dudley and then onto Merry Hill.... but don't hold your breath on that one happening anytime soon!

Cool .. thanks Fisha, 949 is a decent length. I have beaten this though by walking 981 yards through Withcall Tunnel on the Louth and Lincs line on the Bardney branch. Still needs to be conquered though.

i have to say i don't think i'll ever get sick of looking at these photos, they're pretty much what i was aiming for when i went down there with a friend and thought that we would be able to shoot something like it, no such luck i'm afraid!

for the tunnel i packed two torches and my friend was supposed to have bought his "big massive" torch, which he then forgot, so we had to make do. considering that we weren't that well prepared, the photos we got weren't too bad. i would say it's well worth going down there though, and i'm certain we'll be back down there with more light sources because i'm going to get photos that are 1000th as good as fisha's if it kills me!