Being British #5

[AurorKeefy]

*Shakes fist impotently at other British Members of the board*

Bloody southerners!

Ahem. ()

In actual fact there are quite a few train tunnels in Britain, frequently for things a great deal less grand than the rockies. On my weekly train ride to manchester I go through at least one tunnel. When I've been further afield toward Leeds, I've gone through several more, some of them quite long - though I would imagine that is relative compared to the trains through the Rockies. Often the hills and valley landscape of Northern England mean that it is easier to make a long tunnel through a hill than it is to find a way around it. So down south might not have them, but I assure you we do.

Of course, even further north is Scotland, though I'm not entirely sure what the situation is here. I went to the south of Scotland, and the landscape was a great deal more mountainous compared to the hills of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and obviously the case is far more extreme in the Scottish highlands. Whether or not this means more tunnels however, I couldn't really say. As far as my limited knowledge of train lines north of the boarder goes, there isn't nearly as much in the way of railway lines in Scotland as there is in England. Of course the lines going up to Fort William and Inverness have to go through a fair bit of mountainous terrain, so it would seem plausible that there would be more than the odd tunnel.

And, of course, Hogwarts is doubtless more isolated than either, so unless you can think of a better wizarding way of negotiating such problem as valleys, hills and mountains, it's fair to say you can expect a few.

For everything else you could ever need to know about train tunnels in the north of England, feel free to drop and email to Keefyborestheworldsenseless@departme...dtunnels.co.uk . Thanks for your time.

[Magical Maeve]

Completely agree with Keefy. There are lots of tunnels in the UK; not all of them are used nowadays, but this is more the fault of line closures than the tunnels themselves. They had to cut many tunnels cross country through the pennines from Lancashire to Yorkshire, the pennines being one of the most invonvenient ranges in the UK. (as anyone crossing the M62 Manchester to Leeds will attest to). There are even the occasional tunnel fires or collapses which, if they happen on a busy route, can cause huge disruption.

All I would say is that if you do use a tunnel, double check your location for feasability. Here's a list from Wikipedia of train tunnels in the UK:

Tunnels

[TyrannoLaurus]

Just to argue, there really isn't that many tunnels. I know there's one between Wombwell and Sheffield but all the way up to Newcastle or down to Peterborough on the main north route (one of the biggest train routes in England that runs straight up from London King's X to Edinbrugh and stops at main cities like York, Newcastle and Peterbrough) you don't encounter tunnels. England can be quite hilly in parts but tunnels aren't something you expect on a train.

[AurorKeefy]

With due respect, the fact that there are very few tunnels on one of the biggest train routes in England shouldn't come at that great a surprise. If you're going to plan to make a track the length of the country, it's probably best to plan a route that is as easy as is feasibly possible. Furthermore, a lot of the cities on that route are as large and as old as they are as a direct result of being on a transport route.

[nikkiolapotter]

Is it normal to use the term 'grown-up' as a noun, or would you just say 'adult'?

[hermy_loves_ron]

If you don't mind, I think I could answer that.

I'm not sure for England over all, but it is used in the Harry Potter books by Harry himself as a noun. In OotP, after the snake attack on Mr. Weasley, Harry gets starts yelling at Phineas's portrait, and he says something about standing by while the grown-ups sort it out...so they do it in the HP world, and I can't imagine that it'd be any different from the Muggle England.

Hope that helps; someone else feel free to contradict me.

[Magical Maeve]

*nods* I concur that grown-up is used quite frequently.

Okay... on the subject of train tunnels - we are in serious danger of confusing the poster who asked the questions. We've already told moonymaniac that the occurence of tunnels varies widely and that there are specific routes that do have more tunnels than others - namely the cross-pennine routes. The list provided gives an accurate and up to date list of what tunnels are where. The mainline north-south route takes the path of least resistance, as you would expect. That route in one form or other has been around since Roman times (although without the trains - obviously ) and I don't recall the Romans being reknowned for their tunneling skills.

I think the question about train tunnels has been answer concisely enough now without further disagreement. The nub of the question was do we know of any places where the train tunnels run through earth; the answer - clearly - is yes and a list has been provided.

[moonymaniac]

*absolutely loves the Being British thread*

Thank you all for all the information. I definitely got what I needed. I don't know why I couldn't find that list when I tried googling for a good half hour before posting here. *curses her non-existant skill at searching* Anyway, just fyi, I settled on Derbyshire as the setting I was looking for, and someday, I want to get over there and ride all the trains before they close anymore of those tunnels; they are beautiful. Yes, I looked at every one, not to mention bouncing around for over an hour through all the various links within. *easily distracted but learned a lot* *keeps mouth shut that the Pennines look more like foothills* <.<



So this isn't total spamming of the Being British thread, I have a question on puddings. *proudly uses Britishism* I need a truly decadent, comforting treat. It should be warm and gooey and make you close your eyes and go "Ummmmm". I searched and the closest thing I could find from descriptions was a bread and butter pudding with warm custard sauce. I've also heard of something called sticky-toffee pudding that sounds yummy, but can't find anything to suggest whether it is served warm or not, and as Haagen daas has made an ice cream flavor of it, I'm doubtful. Oh, and it should have been around a while. I'm writing Marauder Era. So, do people generally love bread and butter pudding with warm custard sauce or is there something much better?

*wonders if opinionated Brits will disagree on yumminess of desserts* LOL

Oh, one more thing...Would one use grub in reference to food? I know Aunt Marge called it nosh. Would that be more common? Again, this would be one of the Marauder Era teenagers.

[Magical Maeve]

Bread and Butter Pudding would be perfect as a warm comfort food. It's been around for a long time and was popular in the seventies. Other desserts would include treacle pudding, spotted dick (more prevalent in the seventies - fallen out of favour in the nineties), and the favourite of school dinner ladies the land over jam roly poly. There's also the less sticky stalwarts like apple pie or apple crumble, summer pudding, treacle tart, black forest gateau (typical seventies that one), varieties of fruit fools, cheesecakes... the list goes on.

For a brief overview - Linkage

That site as a whole is a great resource for English culture. It's been done by a primary school and contains some nice nuggets of information.

Nosh and grub are both acceptable usage. Nosh less so now, and used mainly by people of Aunt Marge's type. That was a good bit of observation on Jo's part. Grub is still used; not commonplace, but definately still in use.


I wait patiently for someone to come along and disagree with me.

[CCCC]

I've also heard of something called sticky-toffee pudding that sounds yummy, but can't find anything to suggest whether it is served warm or not, and as Haagen daas has made an ice cream flavor of it, I'm doubtful. Oh, and it should have been around a while. I'm writing Marauder Era. So, do people generally love bread and butter pudding with warm custard sauce or is there something much better?

It is served hot. Personally I'd like to flag up the pleasures of upside-down cake.

Also if you use spotted dick at least one immature character will snigger at the name (I think, the use of 'dick' in slang for a certain male organ may have been less prevalent in the seventies (a bit before my time).