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[NSC] Victorian engineering.



Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patron
Oct 8, 2003
56,119
Faversham
I’ve just started re-reading The Bridge , by Iain Banks . Very recommended.

Ha! Mrs Tackle gave me a copy during our courtship.

I should warn you though, it isn't actually about an actual bridge :facepalm: ??? :thumbsup: :lolol:
 






Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patron
Oct 8, 2003
56,119
Faversham


Raleigh Chopper

New member
Sep 1, 2011
12,054
Plymouth
St Pancras the main building/hotel and the sweep of the train terminus are both stunning.

Did you know that if you go under the platforms at St Pancras the platform floor is held up by many cast iron props.
Nice props you may think, but each prop is spaced perfectly to hold 50 (I think) beer barrels so they don't roll away, they would have been empty to go back to the Burton breweries or full to be collected and taken to London pubs.
Clever buggers the Victorians.
 






GT49er

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Feb 1, 2009
49,186
Gloucester
All the way down from Plymouth to Penzance there are many beautiful viaducts, the one that goes over the river at St Germans is a thing of beauty.
I have great interest in Victorian engineering, St Pancras station is a truly amazing building.

Yes, we have many beautiful stations in the UK - some of them still haven't been spoiled too badly!
 


Eeyore

Colonel Hee-Haw of Queen's Park
NSC Patron
Apr 5, 2014
25,922


wellquickwoody

Many More Voting Years
NSC Patron
Aug 10, 2007
13,912
Melbourne
Talking of lesser known marvels, anyone remember the bridge over Hartington Road? The brickwork was amazing - the bridge crossed the road at an angle, on a slope, and the bricks were laid at a 45 degrees to the vertical on one side, then up and over the top, to eventually come down to the other side again at 45 degrees to the vertical, the opposite way round!

It was the most fantastic bit of brickwork I've ever seen -really should have been preserved.

I used to play on it as a child as it was being demolished!
 

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dejavuatbtn

Well-known member
Aug 4, 2010
7,574
Henfield
To be honest, today we could never afford the level and quality of Victorian building and engineering. You see the old photos of guys in cloth caps and suits digging and laying brick, hardly earning a penny and living in shite slum conditions. We’ve never had it so good.
 


maffew

Well-known member
Dec 10, 2003
9,014
Worcester England
Watched a couple of documentaries on Brunel, just absolutely insane what the man did. An extraordinary amount of projects all running at the same time, a total game changing visionary genius
 




Raleigh Chopper

New member
Sep 1, 2011
12,054
Plymouth
To be honest, today we could never afford the level and quality of Victorian building and engineering. You see the old photos of guys in cloth caps and suits digging and laying brick, hardly earning a penny and living in shite slum conditions. We’ve never had it so good.

As Easy 10 said, the London Underground,but also the sewers, amazing engineering with millions of bricks.
You are right about today, but the series of programmes about building Crossrail was equally fascinating especially the bit between Marble Arch and Liverpool Street.
The tunnel at Tottenham Court Road passes above the Northern Line platform with a gap of about 6 inches, whilst above lasers were fixed to the walls of buildings in Soho Square to make sure they were not moving.
 


Triggaaar

Well-known member
Oct 24, 2005
53,153
Goldstone
None of it'll last
 








I love the Ouse Valley Viaduct

I did a piece on it a while ago with a slightly different slant.

https://brightonlines.wordpress.com/2014/05/18/the-ouse-valley-viaduct-and-what-history-forgets/

Victorian architecture is majestic but I can't help think that history was written by the overlords.

Very true - perhaps there should be a memorial to the "unknown navvy". Love this song which is very true, albeit with an American slant but appropriately by an Irish Band

https://www.google.com/search?q=the...i60j35i39l2.6147j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Much better than the the similarly themed and named song by another, better known, Irish band :)
 


maltaseagull

Well-known member
Feb 25, 2009
13,361
Zabbar- Malta


Doonhamer7

Well-known member
Jun 17, 2016
1,454
The greatest feats of Victorian civil engineering is the bits none of us see - the most important thing ever done is the provision of clean water and the removal of sewage. Bazalgette’s work is so much more fundamentally important than anything Brunel or Telford ever did. Without water being sorted we would still have all the waterborne diseases of cholera et al
 




thedonkeycentrehalf

Moved back to wear the gloves (again)
Jul 7, 2003
9,341
Our main train route from the coast is another fine example and is fast approaching its 200th birthday.

At 1 mile 499 yards (2065 metres) the Sussex Clayton Tunnel was completed in 1841 after 3 years of work. Given the tools available to them back then, this always amazes me together with the aforementioned Ouse Valley Viaduct.
 


Jack Straw

I look nothing like him!
Jul 7, 2003
7,113
Brighton. NOT KEMPTOWN!
Talking of lesser known marvels, anyone remember the bridge over Hartington Road? The brickwork was amazing - the bridge crossed the road at an angle, on a slope, and the bricks were laid at a 45 degrees to the vertical on one side, then up and over the top, to eventually come down to the other side again at 45 degrees to the vertical, the opposite way round!

It was the most fantastic bit of brickwork I've ever seen -really should have been preserved.

Just before the Freshfield Industrial Estate was built, accompanied by a couple of friends, we walked through the tunnel, out the other side, across the Hartington Road bridge, and over the Lewes Road viaduct. This would have been around 1970. We kept walking but when we started to see trains, (we were nearing Brighton Station), we decided it would be prudent to go back!
In the very early '60's, I attended Elm Grove Infants School. From the playground, we used to watch the steam trains going to a from Kemp Town Goods Yard.
Several years after the industrial estate was built and the tunnel blocked up, I managed William Clarke Park (amongst other green spaces), which was made on the land from Elm Grove School down to Hartington Road.
 


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