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Hoylake Crescent, UXBRIDGE, UB10 8JF

On a small area of common land adjacent to the railway at Ickenham.

River Pinn by Copthall Road West

Part of the Pynchester Moat, a Scheduled Ancient Monument on the River Pinn just east of Copthall Road West. Although usually dry in the summer months, the moat surrounding the location of a manor house can still be seen.

The photograph was taken from a Birmingham-bound Chiltern Railways service speeding out of Marylebone; the view is back toward the HS2 works at West Ruislip where the line will emerge from under west London at the western portal of the Northolt Tunnels. What follows is partly speculation. The photo shows stacks of up to seven precast concrete tunnel linings; seven segments lock together to form a complete ring. The segments are put in place automatically by a unit in the tunnel boring machine (TBM) as it proceeds. The HS2 website has a number of YouTube videos about TBMs (and much else): https://www.hs2.org.uk/building-hs2/tunnels/meet-our-giant-tunnel-boring-machines/ The structure in the left background carries – let’s call them pods – which can be loaded with segments by travelling crane and rolled down into the tunnel to replenish the TBM. This structure, and another, can be seen beyond the red locomotive in Image This image reference: 7498538

If all goes ahead as planned this line will be replaced by the HS2 high speed line from London to the Midlands and the North.

The Greenway is a residential cul-de-sac south of and adjacent to the Chiltern main line out of Marylebone. The HS2 works are on the north side of the line. Through a gap in the trees one of the travelling cranes (just visible in the distance in Image) was seen moving away. Its motive power was audible. A resident remarked that noise from the HS2 works was a nuisance that had to be borne.