Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/07/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Wonderfully timeless railway shot!! Isambard Kingdom Brunel (what a name!!) - one of the great engineers and one of my childhood heroes. A picture of the SS Great Britain hangs on the wall above my desk Almost everything he built was ahead of its time - like the Great Western Railway, the SS Great Eastern (the biggest ship of its time and held this record for over 40 years) , The SS Great Britain and the SS Great Western and the amazing Atmospheric Railway. http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_events/atmospheric_railway.php But almost everything went wrong in the end. Sadly his ships were too big, nobody trusted the steam engines they used and he picked the wrong gauge for his railways(7ft/2.14m instead of Stephenson?s standard gauge of 4ft 8.5/1.43 m). The GWR was forced by act of Parliament to replace all its tracks and rolling stock in the early 1890s. As is often the case with big construction projects today, Brunel's GWR cost twice as much as his estimated costs and the Atmospheric Railway went bankrupt BTW: Brunel also designed the cast iron gas street lamps in Bath. Cheers Douglas PS The oldest railway in the UK is in my home town of Leeds - the Middleton Railway - a colliery railway built by Matthew Murray in 1758 and still in use today (as a museum railway with steam traction since 1960). This was the first true RAILway - in contrast to all earlier attempts which used iron plates or blocks of stone to support the trucks or waggons, his was the first to employ iron rails carried on sleepers. The first railway locomotive on this line was the "Salamanca" in 1812 and the railway became the first commercial railway to successfully use steam locomotives. The first person ever to be killed in a railway accident also died on the Middleton Railway - In February 1813, John Bruce (aged 13) was hit and killed by a train while running along the tracks. A rather sad claim to fame. There's more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middleton_Railway >>> We are spending the last day of our UK trip at our son's place in Bath >>> before all four of us fly back to Alicante tonight. I woke up early and >>> went for a walk in my son's not very interesting neighbourhood. And yet, >>> I >>> took my picture of the day during this walk--one of Britain's and hence >>> the >>> world's oldest rail lines, connecting Bath with Bristol and built by >>> Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1839-1840. By coincidence, I am reading a book >>> about the arrival of the railroad in Bath in 1840 and the impact it had >>> on >>> the local economy and society. Fascinating piece of social history. >>> >>> < >>> http://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/4253606_kdsZ6C#!i=1956365831&k=TNkwJQg&lb=1&s=XL >>> Cheers, >>> Nathan >>> >>> Nathan Wajsman >>> (sent from somewhere) >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >>> >>> >> >> -- >> Tina Manley, ASMP >> www.tinamanley.com >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > >