Red, white and blue balls

 If you take the A38 from Willand to Wellington you will pass signs for Red Ball and for White Ball. Although these are now place names they really refer to two hills.  One is made of white sandstone and the other of red, and apparently "Ball" means a small hill. And there's a Blue Ball Inn in Sampford Moor just off the right hand side of my map - doubtless they wanted to get in on the band-waggon.

So I cycled to the start of a footpath, then hiked, hoping to take photos of the the Thing of Interest, namely the White Ball railway tunnel. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was the chief engineer responsible, indeed he was for the whole route down from Bristol including the famous bridge over the river Tamar which has fascinated me since childhood. Incidentally the bridge carries only a single track with a severe speed restriction of 15 mph.

Royal Albert bridge over Tamar (stock photo)

I had hoped the footpath, that must at some point cross directly over the tunnel, might reveal a ventilation shaft or at least get me close to the tunnel mouth but alas neither were forthcoming. But the history is worth checking out if you love railways as I do. Can you imagine one thousand men with shovels and wheelbarrows who created the cuttings and tunnel? And their effort is still with us, conveying the main line from Paddington to Penzance.

Here is a stock photo taken when they removed all vegetation in 2009, followed with my own photos. Quite a lot of growth since then!

White ball tunnel mouth 2009 (stock photo)

Beginning of footpath

Here it joined a corn field, note...

...the Wellington monument on the horizon

Standing directly over the tunnel looking North

The mouth is down there somewhere

I tried in vain to negotiate the undergrowth

but eventually found this vantage point

Again directly over the tunnel

The last photo was taken on the way back, nearer the top of White Ball hill. If you look carefully near the centre of the photo (you'll need to click to enlarge it) you will see the yellow front of a down-line train about to enter the tunnel.

Three euro ten cent and a hanky

Aka Now-we-are-Sixty-Six-part-2.  Part-1 cost me €3.95 (a coffee and a litre of water). Today's was for crisps and a Club Orange and a lost handkerchief. The travel was free, courtesy the Irish government and being of age. The goal was to explore the coastal rail route which was engineered by Brunel. The destination Rosslare Strand, where I stayed for about 30 minutes, long enough to photograph the strand and buy some crisps before boarding the return train. Had I stayed any longer it would have been back home at midnight.

The Irish Rail part

The route is double track from Dublin (Tara street) to Bray but slow going because we were sandwiched between a constant stream of DART trains that stop at every station. Single track after Bray and no other traffic but never faster than 70 mph.  The pictures are in reverse chronological order and can be enlarged by clicking on them. There are breathtaking sea and river valley views.

Around Bray Head

Sugar Loaf in the distance

Newcastle aerodrome (grass runway)

Fellow passengers nodding off

Wexford

The track runs between the coast road and a parking lot in Wexford town without any fence either side. Consequently there is a 5 mph speed limit and constant use of the horn. There have been bad accidents (see here or here) on this line but I couldn't find evidence of any in Wexford town, thankfully.

Rosslare Strand station

The branch line is goods only

Rosslare beach

Ferrycarrick hotel, our base in a previous post

Model animals opposite FerryCarrick hotel

River Slaney

Golfcourse near Woodenbridge, river Avonmore

Killiney

Dun Laoghaire harbour

Howth

Tara Street station