Tube trains at Alderley?

Trip was many DCC and UCET members into Woodmine, but first a little background for the reasoning behind this trip…

So for a while, I have noted how many people simply do not understand how the passages connect in Wood mine. Even people who have been here for years, it’s not their fault, we are all guilty of rushing around our normal route showing folks the standard features, we barely leave time to ourselves to explore area’s that don’t seem to be relevant to getting places we are keen to show others…

Well I wanted to attempt to change that and give folks a sort of stepping stone to appreciating some less travelled parts of Wood mine.. The current, and quite excellent survey is great, however, for the uninitiated, it does seem to offer more confusion than navigation. Again, not the fault of those who previously surveyed! It’s a layout that can best be described as a small plate of spaghetti, now survey that!

Wood mine simply does not transfer to a survey well for navigation purposes, it’s just how it is. Passages on passages, terminations, small details easily lost or missed when trying to find your way around the passages and caverns.

Now the idea to recreate the general feel of Wood Mine in a style that whilst not scaleably (new word for the dictionary there?!) accurate, could at least help people make sense of which passage connects to where, and how the overall maze can be simplified in a way that gives enough information to find your way around the place.

I had seen previous maps from other caving clubs, the one that really jumped out to me was the Peak Cavern system in the style of the tube map. Originally conceived by Harry Beck in 1931, the London underground was starting to look like parts of Wood Mine using conventional mapping techniques. Harry saw that he could simplify the whole network by ignoring exact placement and scale, and moving for a more precise, less accurate layout, which would stretch some lines, even others out, and generally show, in bold and simple lines, colours, and circles, interconnecting systems.

Positions did not have to be accurate, just roughly in the right area for people to instantly recognise their start, change, and destinations. Rails did not have to follow that of the track, all that was needed was a line that neatly flowed to the next station whilst having minimum interruption of other lines.

And this is how I went about producing a map for Wood Mine. I used the official survey to rough out the position of prominent features, so that it would be easy to recognise key areas. I had to depart slightly from the LU convention, I wanted to make chambers instantly recognisable, so they got a representation all of themselves. I would try to maintain the overall direction of passages, but straighten features out such as small kinks etc… The multiple stacked passages would prove interesting and a problem at first. However, by using layers to produce a pleasing outline, I then tried shifting the chambers up, down, or sideways to a blank area. Now any interconnecting shafts would clearly be an issue. The moment you draw a passage between the shaft top and bottom, to connect the shift chamber, you are introducing things that do not exist, something people would be looking for and would never find. So, it occurred to me a dashed line could be a sort of teleport – it suggests there is a connection, but as long as you look at the key, you can understand that it’s a displaced connection…

So after much messing about, I finally came up with something that pleased me. With the map at hand, I now needed a team to try it with!

I wanted club members along for the trip, but also I wanted people who had never previously either been to wood mine, or at least not had enough experience to know where they might be at any point, and that is where UCET came good!

I think there were going on for 20 people who turned up all told, and everyone was given a copy of the map and promptly went in different directions following the lines of the map….

We had arranged to meet everyone at a reasonable time, and here is where the real test would reveal itself… would their be any missing people? Well, I forgot to count numbers, but there were a good number who appeared in the right place at the right time, everyone smiling, and so we just assumed the map had done its job and worked!

On the whole, feedback was quite positive. People were able to locate themselves easily, follow the routes and even folks who are not known for their navigating abilities were able to explore without getting totally lost!

I considered this to be a hit!

Thanks to all those members who came along to help, and the UCET members who also turned up. West Mine next? Who knows!

The image I have supplied below is much reduced. If you would like a copy, please see the folling link. It may be updated from time to time.

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1cgHggcmpeEs3WFUtMG4o-GejKErNvYCU

Dan takes a minute to locate himself.	Renuka has just teleported to the base of the ladder. You don't even notice if you do it right!	Rob in Stump Chamber	I think all present and correct?

Type of entry: Alderley

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