British Engineering - As it was...

[Arch]

"It was the same with that rainy place, what's it called? Oh yes, Manchester...."



Astonishing, a thing that size being taken through London and all those towns!

 

[slowmotion]

Yes. Greenwich to Grangemouth. What was wrong with taking it by barge?

Hyde Park Corner used to be much more road and less open space then.

Fewer bloody cyclists too, come a Friday night...

 

[srw]

Great stuff. Like the tunnel worker drinking from the fire bucket - wonder if that's still allowed?!

There were rumours at my boys school that the boarders played something called "the fire bucket game". They also, allegedly, played "the soggy biscuit game". Details are best left to the imagination.

 

[Archie_tect]

Great stuff. Like the tunnel worker drinking from the fire bucket - wonder if that's still allowed?!

As long as you don't spill it.

 

[guitarpete247]

Me and a few mates used to buy a bucket of beer from the landlord of my local. (Usually the slops bucket but at the end of the night we'd drink anything). It was alright till the handle of the, stainless steel, bucket hit you on the head as you got towards the bottom of the bucket .


Some great films there though. Life as it was when I was a kid in the late 50's early 60's.

 

[User482]

The high speed line to the Channel tunnel is an engineering masterpiece. It's a pity that rather than celebrate it, we choose to hark back to a byegone era when multiple deaths were considered routine.

 

[Arch]

Yes. Greenwich to Grangemouth. What was wrong with taking it by barge?

Well, according to the commentary, there wasn't a suitable boat big enough.

Also, I don't think there is a suitable canal link, and it wouldn't fit anyway. The alternative is out of the Thames estuary and up the coast, and I suspect that would have been too slow, assuming there was a ship that could carry it.

 

[Arch]

I was thinking costal not internal canal. I cannot believe that there was no barge big enough, nor that 40 miles per day would have been exceeded comfortably.

Well, we can only assume they had their reasons. It's not like road was an easy option requiring no planning.

Perhaps it was cheaper?

 

[slowmotion]

Well, we can only assume they had their reasons. It's not like road was an easy option requiring no planning.

Perhaps it was cheaper?

In 1952 there was no traffic really.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

In 1952 there was no traffic really.

No, but in 1968 there were trains instead:

http://en.wikipedia....ixon_rail_crash

[media]http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=45105[/media]


I first came across this infamous accident many years back when I saw a picture of the loco, E3009, before the remains of the front were cut away as in the film above.

I don't think I have ever seen a 'modern image' loco more completely destroyed by an accident since. It is made all the more gruesome when you realise 3 people were butchered/crushed in it.

491 tonnes of train hitting a 120 ton transformer at 75mph? You do the physics!

Rather predictably, the picture I saw doesn't get published very much.

Here she is before:

http://www.flickr.co...N08/2955312862/

 

[asterix]

Loved the irony of GO visiting the folding bicycle factory yesterday. Bromptons are wonderful things but is that the very best we can do!