Next stop—in the canal!

IF IT had not been for engineer Mike Clarke seeing the state of a railway retaining wall, a train could well have landed in the Grand Union Canal at Linslade.

Mike was walking the towpath when he noticed how a tree root had badly distorted the retaining wall holding the West Coast railway line, and reported it to Network Rail.

Serous structural problem

He was subsequently thanked for reporting what was a serious structural problem, that is being dealt with.

The tree roots were pushing out the wall that divides the railway from the canal about 20 feet above ground, near to the Globe Inn in Linslade.

Mike noticed the massive horizontal crack that had appeared in the wall, and could imagine heavy rain washing the wall away, causing chaos, adding that though engineers would examine the railway from above, they would not examine the wall from the canal towpath.