Secrets of The Motorway - M55 

You know I HAVE subscribed and it was indeed Wicked, Sweet, Awesome

My home city lol

Must go there

​@@Musashi_-81 musashi was shit!

Great to hear, that's what its all about :D

If he were a regular person, I'd say he was quite mad. However, being an officer in the Royal Navy, I guess that made him eccentric...

@@kirkmooneyham Nah, as a Navy officer that just made him normal, the real Navy "eccentrics" are the ones in the subs.

All the bridges had signs showing direction and weight limits for tanks and I was told that some of the bridges had chambers built in that charges could be dropped in to quickly them blow up to slow down an invading army

I forget the name of the base, but there is a small air force base, probably near K-town that was divided by a local german roadway that separated the residential and tenant activity area from the airfield. There was a separate guarded gate and fencing around both sides and concrete bunkers lining the road and spanning the field that ran along the roadway. But rumor was that the underground bunker system was really a tunnel system to allow pilots and ground crews to get from their homes and offices to the airfield if the Soviets attacked. Also, when I visited Rhein Main air base in 1989 or 1990 there were still a few sections of highway where they had the reinforced shoulders and hardened concrete jet bays and other standby equipment for emergency flight operations. The way it was told to me was they were mostly so already airborne pilots had a place to land after the airfield had been bombed, but from what I saw the ones near Rhein Main were meant to refit and refuel for ongoing operations.

Sorry, it was Rammstein, not Rhein Main. Rhein Main is in a far too built up area. I always confuse Rammstein and Rhein Main for some reason.

The Luftwaffe did the same towards the end of the war even with the Me-262. They'd do their missions, land back on the road and then be pushed into the woodland at the sides to hide them from the allied air forces. If I recall I think for some months after the war heavily camouflaged aircraft were still being found in the woods on the sides of roads used for makeshift runways.

We have a similar system in Sweden that is still in use!

Lovely post - nice one

Is that you, Jon?

Well said sir!.

It was very much the same until about 10 years a go when they pulled the old loo's down and did some resurfacing. You can still kind of tell where they were.

Very much still a large car park for now. There are big plans to redevelop it. Some sort of crack pot scientology thing I think.

@@craigcooperxyz An Erich von Daniken theme park I think. Many of his claims still draw people in, and are the main inspiration for the Ancient Aliens TV series, but a lot of them have been debunked. It concerns me that we might end up with an equivalent to Morecambe's notorious Mr Blobby theme park which these days is only of interest to the Urbex crowd.

🏆😂

The occasional Puma and Cougar too. Maybe even a Tiger, a Lynx or even a Cheetah. Or perhaps a Leyland Leopard.

@@CycolacFan I used to drive a “rabbit” lol

@@Dan23_7 I had a Lada (russian for swan :)

@@andw2638 Mine was a Mk1 golf but it was a rabbit in the states 😂 A crap joke on my part I think 😂

One of the first things you do when you build a road is set up your own setting out points/ stations down the road where you know there position and level. You would compare the levels with a number of bench marks and ordnance survey trig points along the route. Then you can erect fences etc in agreed positions before you start the main works. It is normal for benchmarks, setting out points, stations etc to move so you normally check them against each other as the works progress. On a large project like a motorway it is likely they would have a survey team that would go through and check the stations every month or two. The contractors setting out engineer would be expected to work off at least two stations so that they can ensure they have not moved. The client would also have an engineer that would check some of the work. Whilst it is possible that they used one point as their only check of level it does seem unlikely, it would have taken a many months to build the bridges so they would have had to have been particularly lazy and unsupervised for it to happen. I think it is more likely that there was some problem with the drainage design, services that could not be moved or the design headroom changed.

@@johnclements6614 well who knows... modern sensibilities might not have worked too well back then...

That’s brilliant. What a mistake. I always thought that bridge wasn’t part of the Preston bypass ? On Jon’s maps it shows the bypass ending at a roundabout. I always thought it was constructed for the M55 & the lane underneath is just for High Loads as the bridge on the road section on the roundabout is easily 16 foot high.

@@SiRhodesDriverTraining s

​@@johnclements6614 you say that but I know that but quite a few of the houses built opposite me are 150mm lower than intended I heard it from mates who worked on the site and it's obvious to see they have shingle all around and the damp course is level with the ground not 150 up engineers can make mistakes

Also used in Sewden and Germany (during the Cold War).

Common in uk in areas with plenty of brake warming hills. Always wanted to send it in to one for fun!

Same in Singapore, tho one of the more famous ones are going to be decommission due to the expansion of the neighboring Tengah airbase. those emegency runways are more or less part of the early planning of singapore especially with our expressways. (the one being decommissioned soon is more like a Major rural road that got expanded with a huge median and removable infrastructure

Keep safe Finland from the monster next door

IIRC also part of the american highway system design is intended for emergency use too, hence why there's always at least a mile of straight road every once in a while, though Id be skeptical how useful they would be in some regions and these days due to the proximity of trees in some areas and due to lack of sufficient maintenance

From personal experience, Sunday morning pretty popular also ! I remember being int he slow lane doing probably 80 as one came past - I felt like I was standing still !

I also passed my driving test there too (and in the 80's). I suspect the M55 was my first motorway too, though at the weekends I lived near Garstang, so also drove on the M6 soon after passing.

Where you at ? I’m Leyland

How do you know they're ordinary' people?😉

Check out an A10 landing on a road at Alpena, Michigan. people and house are quite close.

@@chrisplunkett2814there from Preston

Difference between then and now, no health and safety Nazis just common sense.

And those 600lb bombs were HE judging by the yellow bands on them. Those spectators were very close!

HMS Inskip was a Fleet Aur Arm Station during the war, known as HMS Nightjar. It was the transmitter station for the RN, / Whitehall Radio, and the receiver station was at HMS Forest Moor. I lived in Treales just down the road from it.

Join the road at the speed to match the existing traffic ✅

A number of sections of the post-WW2 Autobahn network were actually specifically constructed for use as auxiliary airfields, in case the Cold War had gotten hot. Those sections would be arrow-straight, lack a grass median, having a concrete one instead, and have removable median barriers. Each end of these prepared sections would also sport the Rastplatz or “rest area” you mentioned, basically a large car park with minimal amenities at either end. Whilst these were used for drivers to take a break during peacetime, they were designed to act as aircraft stands during wartime. Out of curiosity, when you mentioned you used the autobahn was an airfield with the BAOR, was that in 1984 by any chance? I know that the German Luftwaffe and US Air Force ran an exercise in that year to test the concept, Exercise Highway 84, and I’m wondering whether you may have gotten roped into that as well.

@@thomilsvlog4544 I was in BOAR from 1989 to 1993, during on Active Edge we had 2 AC 130s land on a section of autobahn to support a Div Ex in Soltau. I was part of the AAC and we had to fly some parts from Gutersloh to that area. Knowing and seeing it in action was completely different and to see a flight of harriers parked behind the mound was exceptional. It was the longest I had been on exercise prior to being deployed on Ops.

I didn't realise that it was RAF, always thought it was BAE.

I'm an Anglophile in America enjoying these videos

Beautifully ridiculous, isn't it?

@@qwertyTRiG But, to be fair, they have supplied one of those trough thingies to wheel bikes in, to save having to carry them up and down the stairs. It's just a pity it's on the left going down and on the right going back up, so you have to pick up your bike or walk around it at the bottom

@@kgbgb3663 It should be a "Stop" sign. "Give Way" means to proceed if there is no oncoming traffic. But if you want to ride down steps, knock yourself out.

@@philsharp758 A "stop and dismount" sign would make sense, if there is such a thing available in the UK. But if someone (not me) is athletic enough to be able to dismount and start wheeling their bike without stopping, it's fine by me, so long as they give way to people already on the steps. It looks like the authorities, despite their other failings, agree with me.

Now what was the Chadderton aircraft factory is the home of the Manchester Evening News, you pass it on what is now the M60 (Manchester Circular Motorway) The Lancaster's probably took off after building, to go over to either Woodford or Ringway (now Manchester Airport) for test flights, etc. before being issued to a Squadron or Maintainance Depot.

@@markbooth1117 I think its what is now called GreenGate / Lightbowne Road. The NOV building seems to be where BAE systems was and when I try to look it up, it seems that was the place. That said, its changed a lot since I was there even looking down from Google's satellite view.

Aah, the Jaguar. Constant thrust, variable noise...

farm house?

similarly the M5(S) between J12 and J13 follows the line of the runway of RAF Moreton Valence, latterly used by the Gloster aircraft company for the commissioning of Gloster Javelins

And down South, part of the M5 runs along the site of the main runway of RAF Moreton Valence. Some of the buildings survived until relatively recently as a business park, but have now been demolished to make way for a Dobbies garden centre and Javelin Park EFW (typical they chose such a scenic name for a giant incinerator!) However, aerial photos show crop marks along the alignment of one of the cross runways, while at the South end of the former airfield are ghost slip roads for a missing MSA.

Part of the M4 Services at Membury are built on parts of an old WW2 airfield.

I remember being driven past the Former RAF Burtonwood in the early 1980s When the Air traffic control tower and remainder of the Taxiway was still there. The whole area is now a massive industrial area Amazon Asda & UPS Warehouses.

eh ?? the Yanks left it in the early 50s

It's funny, long after it opened my mates did an unsponsored walk down it at night and ended up making a contribution to Lancashire Constabulary's Christmas party funds. Eejits.

Someone should do a video about it (M3 episode)

@@AutoShenanigans 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️I’d forgotten you had already done a video on the M3! I had already watched it honest!!

It's the most interesting part of the M55 :D there's not much going on!

I spent an hour learning how to make credits "roll" :D

Personally I can’t see the point unless the new junction is actually being built for the benefit of lots of new housing developments.

I was going to do a "beach outro" but that would have involved driving right into Blackpool during the school run... it's not for me. So we get a moody railway instead :D Thanks for watching.

I don't believe that for a second Alan, that tunnel wasn't even started after the wall came down and the Cold War essentially over (even BAe was beginning to close and that was a perfectly good runway next door, so still a target). The Galleria was also only designed to exist for 10 years but got a refurb and extension to life about the time they rearranged all the carparks near the McDonalds bit. Th Galleria hangs over the tunnel rather than resting on it

@@daveoftheclanburgess Hi Dave. I am sceptical as I said, but in fact, the tunnel was built between 1984 and 1987. There is a video on youtube called 'Hatfield Tunnel - Concept to Reality'. The wall fell in November 1989. BAe ended aircraft production in 1993. They were making the BAe-146 small airliner there, which has only recently been retired by the RAF. I'm not sure where the Harrier was made. Every time I drive though the tunnel, I look for anything that could be remnants of blast doors, but there is nothing!

@@apc108 Hello Alan, I'm amazed it was that early, as I was a swimmer at Hatfield swimming club around then and, though I remember the works going on and blocking the route to St.Albans, I would never have remembered it as finished that early. May be it was the Galleria that was finished much later. My point about BAe being there was it being a target, so pointless having the Harriers in the tunnel so close by. One of my best friends was employed building 146s (and many of my friends' fathers worked there earlier until the site was drawn down). I think Harriers were built at various locations including Warton as mentioned in the Jaguar scene above and where they most recently built the Typhoons. I think some earlier Harriers were built at Dunsfold where Top Gear used to be filmed. That was the old former AirSpeed factory that built gliders and Mosquitos (alongside Hatfield and many other sites) in WW2. Completely off the tunnel subject, I was at RAF Wittering a little while after the Harrier GR9s were withdrawn from service and saw them being wrapped in plastic for transport to the USMC. They snapped up the relatively young planes for a song after the RAF did a deal with the RN not to object to the carriers if the Navy allowed the RAF to get rid of the Harrier so they could keep the Tornados. Of course the RAF wanted the outdated and cumbersome (but supersonic) Tornados, that's what fly boys are about! Us ground soldier wanted Harrier and Apache supporting us in Afghan, not a noisy pointless flyby from a 1970s museum piece that was never going to engage anything!