This is one I’d kept clear of for a while due to its being involved in underground atomic bomb testing, which I now realise was from a misreading of the SubBrit report on Excelsior Tunnel – Subterranea Britannica (by the way take a look at picture 3 on that page – is that Spiderman walking to the back of that VW van?)
In fact what they were doing was checking to see whether the Russkies could sign up to a test ban treaty and then cheat by masking the tell-tale seismic signature of an underground atomic bomb explosion (well yeah and probably also checking whether the Allies could too)
They used an abandoned tin, copper and wolfram mine on a hillside at the east end of Cornwall, and in 1959 test fired conventional (I hope) explosives there and did find they could blur the seismic waves created. Further tests carried out elsewhere verified this with the nett result that the test ban treaty failed to get off the ground, and Russian and Cuba invaded the US (Red Dawn (1984) - IMDb )
Recent pictures on here by some glowing members of 28DL made me decide it was time for a visit. Finding the tunnel is another however another matter – it’s a bit like one of those Where’s Spot? books
Is it in here?
No, bit tricky even for a 28DL SBS mission
Is it in here?
No, bit bloody short if it is
Is it in here? ... wait a minute there's no bloody entrance
Ah yes, this looks more like it
Past a waterfall ...
and more falling water
a ventilation duct entrance - looks a bit drier in there
roof fall?
By the way, anyone know what that blind passage in picture 5 would have been for?
In fact what they were doing was checking to see whether the Russkies could sign up to a test ban treaty and then cheat by masking the tell-tale seismic signature of an underground atomic bomb explosion (well yeah and probably also checking whether the Allies could too)
They used an abandoned tin, copper and wolfram mine on a hillside at the east end of Cornwall, and in 1959 test fired conventional (I hope) explosives there and did find they could blur the seismic waves created. Further tests carried out elsewhere verified this with the nett result that the test ban treaty failed to get off the ground, and Russian and Cuba invaded the US (Red Dawn (1984) - IMDb )
Recent pictures on here by some glowing members of 28DL made me decide it was time for a visit. Finding the tunnel is another however another matter – it’s a bit like one of those Where’s Spot? books
Is it in here?
No, bit tricky even for a 28DL SBS mission
Is it in here?
No, bit bloody short if it is
Is it in here? ... wait a minute there's no bloody entrance
Ah yes, this looks more like it
Past a waterfall ...
and more falling water
a ventilation duct entrance - looks a bit drier in there
roof fall?
By the way, anyone know what that blind passage in picture 5 would have been for?
