Secrets of The Motorway - M6 Part 4 - Lancaster - Gretna 

Joining at J34 N was a short, uphill sliproad, with hardly any length before you got to the Lune Bridge which had no hard shoulder. I did it once in my old diesel Landy, getting to about 30mph before avoiding a 50ft drop and becoming fish food by merging into lane 1.

Classic uk infrastructure

Was fun coming off here too when heading north. That left hand turn as decelerating could be particularly interesting in the rain.

​@@kennedy250980I preferred coming off the M6 going south. Lovely tight road that you could ping it round...... And then slam on hard for the traffic lights!

I believe the original design was never intended to be a public access at all, rather an emergency route on to and off the motorway. Someone changed their mind but not the design hence its vastly suboptimal geometry.

Sometimes called a gamekeepers larder or gibitt where they would hang stoats or other predator species.

Yes, this... used to see it in (equally strange) parts of Wales when I lived there.

To scare off the other moles that have shit eyesight and are mostly underground 😂 But I’ve heard that same reason.

My brother in law was a mole catcher and I asked my sister what does he do with the dead ones? She said "sticks them back down the hole" I asked why , and she replied "as a warning to the rest of moles"

Dried mole meat is a delicacy in some northern parts, lord knows why.

Or B to M to B. Road planners/Dept. Of Transport/whomever decides road classification appear to be completely bonkers - and thats just going by Jon's videos.

There's one that went from unclassified to M, which is how it remains...

The M5 Cullompton bypass was originally back roads gradually joined up and upgraded.

I always assumed it was for access for construction but that makes much more sense

Best sticky toffee pudding I have ever had was there:)

I always thought the Golden Fleece was a farm ... but the same buildings!

i think the buildings have recently been demolished?

@@MiniPerformance I did notice a SOLD sign when I went past yesterday.

Don't worry, my friend did 110 with me hanging on for grim death, with Barry Manilow, sorry, that should be Wagner's ring cycle blasting out! (Actually, it was both, he likes both Manilow and Wagner!)

That paraell Road is the old A74

That's the thing see, if people noticed these things they wouldn't be secrets & Jon wouldn't have a series to present. ;)

You might as well play it loud. You are never going to hear the sirens of a -police- -vehicle- ice cream van behind you at those speeds. 👍

Yes, even knowing its there you forget to notice it really, and only remember it when driving along it. It's a fun little "motorway or the scenic route back?" Decision when driving between Carlisle and Gretna. Both go to effectively the same place, with that parallel road coming into the top of the Kingstown industrial estate in Carlisle, and joining adjacent to the motorway at J45

Me too! Where could I get a copy to scare the neighbours with? 🤣

I knew I knew the tune, just couldn't put my finger on it!

*Thank you!* I knew I knew it, and it was driving me nuts trying to place it.

In the words of the presenter of Jazz Club from The Fast Show "Niiiice!"

The waterways association is trying (not very successfully unfortunately) to reopen the points cut off by various roads and get it back up to Kendal as an active waterway. They have however succeeded in linking the Lancaster canal to the wider canal network by using Savick brook and linking it to the river ribble via a series of locks. That allows people to go to Preston Docks and also to the leeds / liverpool canal via the river Douglas which flows into the ribble.

@@warailawildrunner5300 I hadn't realised up until recently that the section of canal on the Leeds Liverpool Canal from The Bridgewater Canal upto the Walton Summit branch started life as the Lancaster canal. But due to costs was acquired by the Leeds Liverpool instead and redirected through Wheelton. The Walton Summit dead end is still there going nowhere

The isolated section was effectively abandoned in the 1940s, so not much was lost by blocking its way building the M6. It's called the 'Northern Reaches' The wiki will tell you more.

@@spikeus3039 I live close to there and part of our primary school local history classes involved following the canal’s old route as far as Walton Summit. Depressing that the idea of using the canals for pleasure cruising came along long after planners determined they were obsolete eyesores fit only for redevelopment.

A similar thing happened down my way - when the M5 near Stroud was being built, it severed the Stroudwater Navigation which ran from Stroud to the river Severn. Efforts have been underway for a while to get the canal redug and reopened, maybe the same could happen in Lancaster!

Nice one, Thanks for watching!

I pronounce it “Heesham” I live near Preston.

​@@Dan23_7 I do too, from near Barrow

@@Dan23_7 I do as well, and I work in Heysham... and live in Lancaster.

​@@Dan23_7I grew up in Heysham and that's how it's meant to be pronounced. Some locals say "E-shum".

​@@eight-twothat's a throwback to before the dotcom-bust of early 2000s. Back then everything was e-something.

I heard that tale too. I was a student in Lancaster in early 2000's

Tebay is nice, but flippin' expensive.

Superchargers 🙄😬

Tebay services may be nice but the company are not great to work for

it's a southerners wet dream@@toxictony4230

Tebay Northbound is the same , with a nice pond to sit by with your expensive coffee

Considering how many times I have used that section of the M6, I am embarrassed to say that I have never noticed the link road between the two carriageways nor the road that runs parallel to and between the carriageways just north of Tebay. Mind you, I can't think why I would ever need to use either (unless the M6 was closed of course).

Aye in bad weather it does sometimes close at that point in winter.

I thought it was for maybe if they needed a contraflow. But why have they built it the wrong way round? To use it you’d need to change direction then change again when you meet the other carriageway. Seems a strange way to do it and would slow traffic down massively more than is necessary.

yep, remember using them.

How much do moles bring nowadays?

Used to attract crows then you shoot the crows

Indeed it was, I mentioned these hidden junctions in a posting on the A74(M) video a few weeks ago. I used them regularly when working there in the 1990’s and commuting from Yorkshire, from looking at street view the northbound exit now appears to have disappeared behind some noise barriers.

Yes, I think it was used just the other week when an abnormal load was moved from Heysham up the M6 into Scotland in order to get on to the Southbound carriageway so it could exit at a non standard junction. I nearly rode up to try and film it but I walked to the pub instead!

I didn't know that substations had movements. Curious! Perhaps that is why you said that some of the roads were 💩

They've just done a significant amount of work at Harker but didn't reopen the old junction to do it - everything fit on HGV's. I wonder if its more to do with RAF Carlisle (14MU) that used to have multiple sites around that junction, with the main site, and the Heathlands and Harker sub-sites all less than a mile away? We used to use this slip (and the one on the other side next to Aero Nurseries) quite regularly when I was growing up.

@@EditedBaseline I’ve seen from google earth they’ve expanded the substation across the eastern perimeter road and to the northwest as well. The original outdoor 275kV site dates from the 1950’s with a connection across to Stella West upstream of the Tyne from Newcastle, and a circuit to Penwortham near Preston. Back in around 1993 when they built the indoor 400kV substation (the light green building on the eastern edge of the site) the road junctions were still open, maybe some large structural steelwork for gantries came in straight off the A74 but the main transport route for heavy things like transformers was iirc always via the A7 as the main bridges over the M6 could take the load). The switchgear used was very lightweight and compact compared to the 275kV kit, it was gas insulated and manufactured by NEI /Rolls-Royce Reyrolle at Hebburn on Tyneside, the controls were from Siemens in Nuremberg, the protection from GEC and Reyrolle. The new substation at Harker in 1993 didn’t require any new transformers there and was tied in with a 400kV upgrade from Hutton (near Kendal) to Harker and then to Strathaven & Elvanfoot in Scotland (some new pylons, all new insulators and fully restrung conductors along the entire A74 corridor, Balfour Beatty were maybe the contractors I can’t remember for sure) I’m probably one of the few left who worked on the construction and commissioning of that new substation 30 years ago, Andrew Wilmot & Roger Harrison the National Grid site engineers died some time ago, John Warburton the Project Manager from National Grid Harrogate died last year.

Killington Lake, I remember stopping there and looking for a snack, there were portions of Apple pie plated up with cartons of coffee whitener instead of cream! Strangely enough I have never stopped there again.

@@TheFilwud Yes, I stayed one night in the Days Inn 'hotel' there a couple of years ago - proper low quality *hit hole and it wasn't cheap and no food anywhere except Muckies

I once stopped at Killington Lake thinking it was a nice summer day and I could sit overlooking the lake while having lunch. After two minutes of shivering in the cold wind I retreated to my car.

@@divgradcurl9439 Yeah, I never got asked to help in the Days Inn and I feel lucky.

You too 👍🏼

Was the award for being a gorgeous section of motorway?

Nice one, Thanks for watching!

‘kin hell mate, how old are you?…😮

I’m 63 and remember all that , just a kid at the time 😂

Squirrels don't have noses like that, though. They're mowdies.

@@auldfouter8661 Had to Google "mowdies." They're feckin' enormous moles! The only ones I have ever seen are about 3 inches long, black, and with no tails. (See Wind in the willows.) They obviously breed 'em big and tough oop north. 😉

This has got me thinking, is it possible to drive from the M1 to the M2 to the M3 to the M4 to the M5 to the M6. In that order. Hmmm. Answers on a postcard please...

@@garethaethwy the trouble with this motorway logic is that you would have to go ass about tit to do this where as with my drive i just point north and drive.

@@date08 the trouble with that is I’m rather partial to going ass about tit to do something like this, just to be able to do something like this…

@@garethaethwy Not Possible. M1 to M2 requires driving along the M25. M2 to M3 also requires driving along the M20, M26 & M25. BUT it is possible to drive M4 to M5 to M6.

😆

Before it was a Little Chef I think it had been a Happy Eater. Most Happy Eaters were converted to Little Chef after the Forte Group took over Imperial Tobacco's catering division

@@pedanticradiator1491 ah yes, this seems to ring a bell now you mention it.

Nice one, Thanks for watching!

Nice one, Thanks for watching!

I believe that was the second choice for the series name.

Do you really drive and ride on the motorway with maximum 40 mph (64,374 kmph)? In Germany is 60 kmph (37,28 mph) the minimum speed on a autobahn, so that slower vehicles can't use it. The UK folks are really curious. The first maximum trap in the hills are 120 kmph (74,57 mph) often for take photos 😂 then the most vehicle can drive and ride 150/250/299/349 kmph at maximum. 😉

@@OldLordSpeedy on so called smart motorways in the UK the highways agency have the authority to impose a 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 or 70 mph speed limit whenever they like. There is normally a reason for this but legally there don’t have to be. Honestly if you search 20mph on motorway on RU-vid there is a video of someone getting a speeding ticket for doing over 20mph on a motorways yes there is roadworks but it’s night and no work is happening and also the road is clear other than cones. It’s crazy. Driving in the UK you are always on tenterhooks. I so wish we had the German approach when it comes to motorways. Edit I’ve managed to find the link: m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FBBllqt_BkY.html

@@Dean256 This video from you shows a closed motorway where the 3-spur traffic goes into 1-spur traffic. Yeah, the 20mph between the 40 mph zones are crazy, specially in night (all empty) where do you not can drive so fast as on day (mostly full of traffic). But I thinking this "20" at this place was wrong setting then if the traffic stucked as traffic jam on day do you drive and ride slower if you love your own vehicle. Okay, if we have here roadworks the speed go down but normally at 60 kmph maximum with 2-spur every direction. Less as that I never see or know. At junctions it can be possible for short off and in ways. We love here the clover junctions and t-junctions for the crossing road. 😭 Direct ending autobahn into nothing I never have had seen here in Schleswig-Holstein.

@@OldLordSpeedy; your observation again raises the importance of recognising the vast difference between different national road systems and their operational rules. The UK has invented a sophisticated method of killing motorists, particularly in the slow lane on left hand bends. “Smart” motorways don’t have a spare lane for defective or damaged vehicles use while awaiting rescue. Instead there are overhead variable speed limit signs which are used to slow all traffic. The authorities hope that vehicles using the slow lane can spot the carriageway obstruction and either stop in time or dodge out into lane 2 without knocking into any vehicle already using lane 2.

I'll try. Thanks for watching!

@@AutoShenanigans :). What will you do when you have completed all the motorways?

If the handle and the head were both replaced, surely that makes it a different hammer altogether?

Does anyone else want to handle this one? I'm too hungover 🙄

@@XeloX A deep philosophical question! Search "Ship of Theseus" for more information.

Triggers brush.

Triggers broom !!! 😂

Is the pub called the black bull ?

@@timothyivatts it's now called the border gate.

​@@chargingaboutThe Border Gate was not The Golden Fleece. The Border Gate used to be the Carrow House Hotel (or I think for a while Motel). The Golden Fleece was on the other side of the roundabout near the petrol station.

No, it isn't. The M6 crosses the former Waverley Route railway on the level just South of here, and the line was already closed when the dual carriageway was built. What you see there is the former South side entry/exit road, which was blocked off when the M6 upgrade took place and all of the junctions with minor roads between Carlisle and Gretna were closed and removed. The Northbound one was blocked with an embankment and wooden boundary fence, although the stump of it can be seen behind this on Google Earth.

​@@christopherrosindale3175 That wooden boundary fence is part of the Garden Centre which got a lot bigger when the "Cumberland Gap" became a motorway, and they extended!

My old Dacia Duster really hated that slip road!

I wouldn't classify Rheged as being part of the M6

@@josyms7849 me neither. He must have passed Penrith on one of the few days a year it doesnt stink or it would have been mentioned!

Annoyingly, I missed out on making an episode for it, it was only changed recently!

@@AutoShenanigans I was so looking forward to that video too, went on it a few days ago just to confirm and it's a hodgepodge of signage saying all different things from A601(M) to A6070 and B6601 and there's even yellow signs saying [paraphrased] This is no longer A601(M) it is now A6070

Thanks a lot mate, appreciate that!

Probably moles, quite a common thing to do among farmers