Box Tunnel again...

​My friend Chris, an inveterate Grauniad reader (well, someone has to do it), alerts me to a very interesting piece on Box Tunnel published this week in said organ. Due to maintenance work, the tunnel was closed on April 9th, and GWR engineers posted at both ends of the tunnel were able to see if the rising sun really does shine through the tunnel on the morning of Brunel’s birthday.
 
Matthew Golton, commercial development director at GWR, stationed at the western end (the end remote from the sun), reported: ‘We could see the sun had risen, but we weren’t getting a full-on sunshine through the tunnel.’ Well no, you wouldn’t Matthew, because as my analysis shows – published elsewhere on this website – the sun does not shine through the tunnel on Brunel’s birthday … but it does shine through a few days earlier on someone else’s birthday…
 
I sent a copy of my article – viewable here http://www.mirlibooks.com/isambards-gift.html – to the Guardian reporter who wrote the story. No response naturally, although I did, a few weeks ago, get a very nice reply from Michael Portillo to whom I also sent a copy in view of his current series on railways.