Victorian engineering architecture.

[Globalti]

Had to share this. This is the weir on the reservoir at Abbeystead, near Lancaster. Built in 1855, the engineers could have just built a straight weir but no, they built a stunning, perfect curved weir that channels the flow down into a smooth bowl and out of the bottom. Notice also the curved wall opposite, which has been given a completely unnecessary embellishment in the form of a strake below the parapet.

Abbeystead was the scene of a terrible gas explosion in May 1984 that killed 16 visitors who had come to the opening of the new pumping station.

 

[slowmotion]

That weir is just wonderful. Thank you for posting.

 

[alicat]

^^^

 

[slowmotion]

I'm very fond of the brickwork in Victorian sewers.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

Talking of brickwork, often the bricks under a canal bridge are not perpendicular to the side. I presume it's for extra strength but not all are like that, why not?
I'll try to get a picture if that doesn't make sense.

 

[Globalti]

I think you mean when a bridge is on a skew, not perpendicular to the sides? It's very clever. Take a piece of A4 paper, bend it into an arch then move the ends touching the table, in opposite directions while keeping them parallel. All will become clear.

 

[Cuchilo]

I think you mean when a bridge is on a skew, not perpendicular to the sides? It's very clever. Take a piece of A4 paper, bend it into an arch then move the ends touching the table, in opposite directions while keeping them parallel. All will become clear.

Oooooooo it keeps the same shape Girls are gonna love this party trick !

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

That weir is gorgeous, just gorgeous!!!

I'm very fond of the brickwork in Victorian sewers. View attachment 119042

I have these books on my shelves

One is, solely about Bazalgette, & he was one of the wonders of the TV series


I take it you all about this wondrous website?
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/
And, in particular; http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/uk-draining-forum.f94



Concerning wonders in ironwork, I pass over this every working day, & could see it, in the valley bottom from our last house





http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=19
http://www.stanleyhistoryonline.com/Stanley-Ferry-History.html
http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Stanley_Ferry_Aqueduct

 

[vernon]

I can't wait for the British Engineerium to re-open in Hove. It's a wonderful building packed with ornate steam engines. It opened for a preview the other year and I was lucky enough to be in the area to pay it a visit. My previous visit was around fifteen years ago. I'm so grateful to the businessman who bought the building and its contents at the last minute before they went to auction which saved the collection from being split up.

I'm going to have to dig out my Victorian primer on sewage engineering. It's long overdue a reread.

 

[pplpilot]

One of my favorite subjects. The age old question of who your fantasy dinner guests would be, Brunel and Bessemer are at the head of the table...

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

One of my favorite subjects. The age old question of who your fantasy dinner guests would be, Brunel and Bessemer are at the head of the table...

Quite apart from Isambard, an engineering dinner would have to include

'Blind Jack' Metcalf
All 3 Roeblings
Fred Dibnah
Thomas Telford
RJ Mitchell
Roy Chadwick (how did he go from the Lancaster to the Vulcan in such a shirt time)
Guy Martin (to be enthusiastic)
Claire Barratt
John Smeaton

To name a few

 

[slowmotion]

I can't wait for the British Engineerium to re-open in Hove. It's a wonderful building packed with ornate steam engines. It opened for a preview the other year and I was lucky enough to be in the area to pay it a visit. My previous visit was around fifteen years ago. I'm so grateful to the businessman who bought the building and its contents at the last minute before they went to auction which saved the collection from being split up.

I'm going to have to dig out my Victorian primer on sewage engineering. It's long overdue a reread.

Have you visited the Kew Bridge Steam Museum in west London? Every once in a while (monthly?), they have all the engines running on steam, including a massive beam engine from a Cornish tin mine.

 

[toffee]

Abbeystead was the scene of a terrible gas explosion in May 1984 that killed 16 visitors who had come to the opening of the new pumping station.

I was at Lancaster University at the time when this happened but could not remember the explosion. Some googling later and I can just about dredge the incident from the bottom of my mind. How time flies by, God only knows what else In have forgotten over the years.

Derek

 

[vernon]

Have you visited the Kew Bridge Steam Museum in west London? Every once in a while (monthly?), they have all the engines running on steam, including a massive beam engine from a Cornish tin mine.

It's been on my to do list for the past thirty years. Talking of Cornish beam engines, the working one at Levant mine is worth a visit. The engine is unremarkable and is unadorned but the setting of the engine house...

The engines that I want to sea more than all others are these at Buffalo. The first time that I saw this image, I thought that it was ray traced but it's for real. There's five triple expansion pumping engines in a huge building dating from 1915. They are preserved but are not in working order.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

That Buffalo pumping station was featured in one of the Michael Portillo American Railway programmes last week, on BBC2
It looks magnificent