Vintage trains

[Fading Fast]

The coming of the railway brought great wealth to the UK, we were, during most of the 19th century, the richest country in the world. That wealth meant that nothing was impossible to achieve when it came to yet more rail construction. A prime example of this is The Ribblehead Viaduct. 24 magnificent arches spanning the Ribble valley. These two photos give you some idea of the majesty of the structure. If you click on the link you will see a slide show of 37 photos taken from all angles and distances. It was built by hand, if you Google Ribblehead Viaduct you will read the full story of it's construction.
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https://www.visitcumbria.com/carlse...gallery/e75b75e6d36ab90557e5a860ec1f3361/4564

Very cool - I love this stuff.

I live pretty close to this one:

Hell Gate Bridge, 1916:

It was the world's longest steel arch bridge until the Bayonne Bridge opened in 1931

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Gate_Bridge

 

[GHT]

Very cool - I love this stuff.

I live pretty close to this one:

Hell Gate Bridge, 1916:

It was the world's longest steel arch bridge until the Bayonne Bridge opened in 1931

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Gate_Bridge

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Wow, some bridge. When I saw the photos I thought that I had seen it somewhere before. Have you heard of our city of Newcastle? The river Tyne runs through it. There are many bridges across The Tyne but this one is almost it's doppelganger.

 

[Fading Fast]

Wow, some bridge. When I saw the photos I thought that I had seen it somewhere before. Have you heard of our city of Newcastle? The river Tyne runs through it. There are many bridges across The Tyne but this one is almost it's doppelganger.
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Wow, you are so right - a close sibling. Just a beautiful bridge.

 

[GHT]

Two Railway companies, The London Eastern & North & The London Midland Scottish competed for the lucrative London Scotland trade. LMS went from London up the west side of the country to Glasgow, whilst the LNER traversed the east side to Edinburgh. When the steam engine Mallard broke the world speed for a steam train LMS were determined not to get left behind. What they came up with was aerodynamic cowling. They didn't achieve Mallard's top speed but overall they still went like the wind. These pictures are of steam engine Duchess of Hamilton, a Coronation Class engine, with & without cowling.

 

[GHT]

To understand your question you need to go back to the 1960's when we lost 11,000 miles of our rail network. It was deemed to be underused and therefore expensive, so it was ripped up.

Here is a prime example of the closure of much of our rural railways. Back then no one had the foresight to leave the trackbed fallow for fifty years, had they done so, the congestion that we endure on our overcrowded roads could have been quickly and cost effectively solved. Most of the trackbed along with the stations and sidings were demolished and sold off to builders who created new homes which increased the congestion.
But this example is what can happen when someone has the foresight to see through the weeds and dereliction. The photos depict the working life of the station, it's fall into disrepair and it's comeback as a venue for weddings and other events. We went to a wedding there ourselves, two re-enactors got married and they asked for, and got, the entire station looking like 1940's England, right down to the windows being taped in case of bomb blast.

 

[GHT]

Bridges and buttresses to support the overhead streets post rail construction. Seen here heritage trains running on excursions from Bath to Weymouth. Click on any photo to enlarge it.

 

[shoelessjoe]

I’m not too sure that this belongs in Vintage Trains but then again, I suppose that vintage trains ran/run on vintage rails, eh?

I was down in the Springs working the Pikes Peak Local (BNSF) when I spied this particular rail web while switching cars in Kelker Yard ... and adjacent to the Carnegie rail was a inactive spur comprised of 1903 Colorado Fuel & Iron (Pueblo, CO) rail, upon which sat two forlorn & faded olive flatcars with 1943 manufacture dates.

I’d be remiss if I failed to mention that back in WW2 & during the Korean War the majority of Fort Carson’s ordnance & troop movements were done via the rails & that these rails ran right through Kelker Yard. As I lay in my hotel bed that evening all I could think about were all those troops who rolled through Kelker, but never returned.

 

[GHT]

As I lay in my hotel bed that evening all I could think about were all those troops who rolled through Kelker, but never returned.

That's a very sobering thought and one we tend to forget. During the first world war, with the internal combustion engine still in it's infancy, the allies built narrow gauge railways to take supplies, armaments and troops right up to the front line: Click on the link below to see:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=w...UN_aQKHeSRBdgQsAQINA&biw=1366&bih=662#imgrc=_

 

[Trenchfriend]

@shoelessjoe
Yeah, steel-mill signs!

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Dent Station is still in use, it is just the house that is for sale I think.

 

[Fading Fast]

Dent Station is still in use, it is just the house that is for sale I think.

That changes the mental calculus then. How many people want trains blasting right past their house multiple times a day / or screeching to a halt if stopping at the station? Also, if the station is still in use, how close would the passengers getting on and off be to the house? That could be a privacy / creepy issue.

It seems some commercial purpose would make more sense. I lived close enough to railroad tracks once - a few blocks away - that it was modestly disturbing, but being right off an active line would be brutal.

 

[Trenchfriend]

A very very rare steel-mill sign, found 2011 in Weimar:

F K & C° 1869

"Falkenroth, Kocher & Co", Haspe. "Hasper Hütte".

 

[GHT]

The Magnificent Railway Station at York.
Early Victorian York was in thrall to the “Railway King”, George Hudson. A local draper who inherited a minor fortune from a relative, he founded the York & North Midland company in the first rail boom in the 1830's, and went on to dominate the second, the 1840's Railway Mania. His ambition was to make all the railways come to York, which he saw as equidistant between Britain’s north and south.

In 1841, Hudson had been allowed (with the help of George Andrews, city sheriff and Hudson’s company architect) to smash through York’s ancient walls and bring his terminus, shed and hotel inside the medieval city. The site soon proved inadequate. It was not until 1873 that the present station was begun by the inheritors of Hudson’s empire, the North Eastern Railway (NER). The new site was outside the city and, to reach it, the line had to make a tight curve. This accident of geography was to give York’s shed roof its elegance. The architect was that of Newcastle’s great porte cochère, Thomas Prosser, and the station was completed in 1877.

York is the only big station with open platforms. The shed was built by Thomas Harrison to accompany Prosser’s station, and ranks with those of St Pancras and Paddington as masterpieces of Victorian engineering. The glazed roof is supported on classical columns, with colourful Corinthian capitals. The brackets contain spandrels depicting the white rose of York and the NER’s coat of arms. The roof ribs are thick at first, then taper gracefully and are pierced to reduce their weight. At night, York takes on an additional magic, as the lighting throws the arches into relief, their warmth contrasting with the darkness outside.

Tucked in beside the porte cochère is Tearoom Square, guarded by a pub, the York Tap, designed in 1906 by William Bell. The pub’s facade to the platform has swirling art nouveau windows, echoing the curves of the roof above.

This last picture is that of the air raid damage to platforms two and three when York station was struck by a bomb on the 29th of April 1942.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Maxhütte, Sulzbach-Rosenberg. 1940.

Königshütte, Upper Silesia. 1940.

BVG Bochum. 1939.

BVG Bochum. 1938.

Thyssen. 1942.

Unclear. 1933.

Hoesch. 1899.

Königin-Marien-Hütte, Cainsdorf, Saxony. 1884.

Krupp. 1884.

Königin-Marien-Hütte. 1881.

Hörder Bergwerks & Hüttenverein, Hörde, Westphalia. 1890.

 

[GHT]

Wemyss Bay is just a small terminus from Glasgow, passengers went to the Scottish Islands from here, by ferry. Despite it being small, the Victorians knew how to make a statement. Some platform canopy for such a humble station.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Very cool - I love this stuff.

I live pretty close to this one:

Hell Gate Bridge, 1916:

It was the world's longest steel arch bridge until the Bayonne Bridge opened in 1931

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Gate_Bridge

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Where are the two bridges you mention here ?

 

[Fading Fast]

Where are the two bridges you mention here ?

Both connect into NYC.

The Hell Gate (an all-rail bridge) comes directly into NYC from Queens (it was built by the Pennsylvania railroad as part of its mainline from NYC to Boston). Amtrak uses it today. I've gone over it many times (it's long, big and beautiful) as the NYC to Boston Amtrak run uses the old Pennsylvania railroad route.

The Bayonne Bridge (a car and truck bridge) connects Bayonne NJ to Staten Island NY (one of NYC's five boroughs).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Gate_Bridge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayonne_Bridge

 

[EvaS]

Both connect into NYC.

The Hell Gate (an all-rail bridge) comes directly into NYC from Queens (it was built by the Pennsylvania railroad as part of its mainline from NYC to Boston). Amtrak uses it today. I've gone over it many times (it's long, big and beautiful) as the NYC to Boston Amtrak run uses the old Pennsylvania railroad route.

The Bayonne Bridge (a car and truck bridge) connects Bayonne NJ to Staten Island NY (one of NYC's five boroughs).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Gate_Bridge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayonne_Bridge

This is very helpful for me! Thank you.

 

[GHT]

Welland Viaduct, is a railway viaduct which crosses the valley of the River Welland between Harringworth in Northamptonshire and Seaton in Rutland, England.
It is 1,275 yards long and has 82 arches, each of which has a 40 feet span. The viaduct was built by contractor London-based civil engineering firm Lucas and Aird and completed in 1878. It has the distinction of being the longest masonry viaduct across a valley in the United Kingdom,as well as being a Grade 2 listed building.
The Welland Viaduct lies on the Oakham to Kettering Line and carries the twin track line between Corby and Manton Junction, where it joins the Leicester to Peterborough line. Presently, the route is generally used for the passage of freight trains and steam train outings. During early 2009, a single daily passenger service was introduced by East Midlands Trains, running between Melton Mowbray and St Pancras via Corby; this was the first regular daily passenger service to operate across the viaduct since the 1960s. The viaduct is also used as a diversionary route for East Midlands Trains mainline services using the Midland Main Line route. The line and structure, dominating this picturesque rural valley, are a favourite with steam train and heritage enthusiasts alike.

 

[fireman]

When I get to England, that would be on my short list of must take side trips.

Edit...the trip over that bridge above.