Viewing 40 posts - 41 through 80 (of 222 total)
  • Interesting unknown engineering landmarks in the uk
  • druidh
    Free Member

    Kylesku Bridge, Sutherland.

    In amongst the stunning West Coast scenery, this modern structure should look completely incongruous, but somehow it just works.

    druidh
    Free Member

    Kylesku Bridge, Sutherland.

    In amongst the stunning West Coast scenery, this modern structure should look completely incongruous, but somehow it just works.

    owenfackrell
    Free Member


    The sound mirrors have always impressed me. They pre-date radar and were desgined to litsen out for enemy aircraft and were built in 1928-30 see here for more details.

    druidh
    Free Member

    * added post to remove the STW invisibility filter *

    Edit: ach – never mind

    lowey
    Full Member

    Thirlmere Aquaduct. Amazing bit of Victorian Engineering. Water is never pumped. Gravity all the way from Thirlmere to Lostock. Takes 4 days.

    Dinowyg power station near Llanberis.

    KT1973
    Free Member

    gusamc – Member
    http://www.nlb.org.uk/ourlights/history/bellrock.htm

    Possibly not unknown, but dad was a lightkeeper

    I was on it on the last day it was manned. Pretty impressive considering it's 200 years old

    Stoner
    Free Member

    The elan valley dams.
    This is a shot of Craig Goch dam I took.

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    Local to me (and not that well known) is the Millenium Walkway in New Mills, Derbyshire. The town sits on top of a deep gorge where 2 rivers join and there have been mills down there for years (derelict now) along with all the accompanying weirs and dams and 2 huge viaducts over the gorge.

    In 2000 a bridge was finally built to connect the two ends of the footpath (previously walkers had had to go up into the town and round to the other side to continue their walk).

    The bridge won a design award but the architect was killed in the London bombings of 7/7, there's a plaque on the bridge in his memory.

    gusamc
    Free Member

    KT1973 – nice one – keeper, engineer, helicopter ??? what were you doing

    CaptainMainwaring
    Free Member

    The dam at the end of Glen Lyon. Built in the 50's pretty much by hand. It's almost 20 miles up what is now a single track road, but then probably just a track, and then you are still 40 miles from the nearest big town. In those days, a lorry would be pushed to to the round trip in a day

    Megatron
    Full Member

    Southgate tube station?

    not really unknown, just unnoticed.

    CaptainMainwaring
    Free Member

    Or Glenfinnan Viaduct, a la Harry Potter

    thehustler
    Free Member

    Iron bridge, telford

    hh45
    Free Member

    Great thread, hard to add to.

    As well as the London Underground and subterranean mainline services, London is home to another set of train tunnels which run 70 feet under the streets of central London between Whitechapel and Paddington. The entire tunnel network is 23 miles long1, was used up until May 2003, and was built for one purpose: to deliver the post.

    And not many people know that! But you casn't see them so far as I know and I can't find any pics.

    rightplacerighttime
    Free Member

    Well reminded hh45. Here's a pic of Westminster tube station (nothing's too good for those MPs) which is amazing.

    I expect all these pics are on the web just to save terrorists the trouble. Ironic that the police now seem to treat many photographers taking pics of this sort of stuff as terrorists – I'm a photographer not a terrorist.

    izakimak
    Free Member

    M62 across the Lancashire/Yorkshire border.

    http://www.motorwayarchive.ihtservices.co.uk/m62bounpole.htm

    MoreCashThanDash
    Full Member

    Some local to me here in the East Midlands

    Bennerley Viaduct – I just like the look of it, no idea of it's technical merits…http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/17/Bennerley_Viaduct_small.jpg

    The Derwent Valley World Heritage Site – runs from Derby to Matlock and takes in a several mills, especially Arkwrights Mill at Cromford – also the old 3 storey houses he built there for his workers (North Street being the best preserved)

    The fountains and cascades at Chatsworth – find it hard to believe it is all done without any pumps.

    And I'm definitely stopping in New Mills to look at the Millenium Walkway next time I'm working up there!

    High Peak Junction and it's pump house, also Middleton Top on the High Peak Trail – make a nice little bike ride between the two.

    rightplacerighttime
    Free Member

    I think already mentioned, but Box Hill Tunnel is pretty groovy. Nearly 3km long and the sun shines all the way down it on the morning of Brunel's birthday every year.

    CountZero
    Full Member

    Great thread, love the Millenium Walkway, that's terrific.

    Bunnyhop
    Full Member

    Crazy-legs – I love the whole area of 'The Torrs' that the Millenium walkway bridge is built in.
    It's a great place for children to explore.

    Edit: forgot to mention the Archimede's screw at the end of the walk, very interesting stuff.

    br
    Free Member

    The Tom Pudding lift in Goole, my home town:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Pudding

    Not unknown, unless you don't know of it, but Iron Bridge is always worth a look.

    matthewjb
    Free Member

    I'm not sure how anything Brunel built qualifies as 'unknown'. But any opportunity to praise him should be taken. I've always thought the bridge at Saltash was fantastic. And I love this fact:

    Box Hill Tunnel is pretty groovy. Nearly 3km long and the sun shines all the way down it on the morning of Brunel's birthday every year.

    Somehow you can't imagine that particular design feature getting past a planning committee nowadays. A brilliant combination of genius and egomaniac.

    V8_shin_print
    Free Member

    Cragside House in Northumberland is worth a visit from an engineering point of view. It was the first house to have electric lighting and was powered from its own hydro electric scheme.

    It also has a hydraulic lift and the greenhouse has automated turntables for individual plant pots to track the sun.

    KT1973
    Free Member

    gusamc – Member
    KT1973 – nice one – keeper, engineer, helicopter ??? what were you doing

    Posted 10 hours ago # Report-Post
    My Grandfather had a boat and we took the local MP and photographers etc out there. I was still at school and I remember that it was a beautiful day – the sea was like glass and the MP was puking non stop.
    It was low tide so we were able to go onto the rock and have a tour of the lighthouse. A cracking day I'll always remember.

    joemarshall
    Free Member

    High Peak Junction and it's pump house, also Middleton Top on the High Peak Trail – make a nice little bike ride between the two.

    And a pair of aqueducts over both a river and a railway, which is somehow rather satisfying. Oh and a nice enough tunnel too.

    Joe

    nickjb
    Free Member

    This dam in mid wales looked like it would be fun on a lilo. Lots on 'no canoes' signs on it.

    simonm
    Free Member

    not so unknown but overlooked… The Big One !

    matthewjb
    Free Member

    nickjb – Member
    This dam in mid wales looked like it would be fun on a lilo. Lots on 'no canoes' signs on it.

    Looks good on a canoe too

    marty
    Free Member

    not unknown, but i like:

    1. loch katrine system of dams and aqueducts – built to supply glasgow with water – http://www.hiddenglasgow.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9427&start=0
    2. cruachan power station – the scale of the main cavern is really impressive
    3. the large scale hydro-electric dams built in scotland from 1930s onward. really should get round to buying one of the books written about the boom times post wwii.

    aP
    Free Member

    There's lots of tunnels under London including the new Thames sewage tunnel which is in the process of being constructed, Crossrail is in the latest stages of design with some work begun – the central London stations are going to awesome. The deep level shelters built under several nortern line station are quite strange – I've been in the one under Clapham South station (for electrical geeks there's a fantastic mercury arc rectifier which is very strange – but not something to look at for too long).
    Some tube stations have got some very interesting disused shafts and tunnels, standind on a very small wobbly bridge over a 30m shaft hearing the trains go past and just seeing daylight 10m above your head is very disturbing.
    Of course there's also thos tunnels (touches side of nose) under Green Park, allegedly…..

    RustySpanner
    Full Member

    Summit Tunnel – built by George Stephenson.
    Runs between Littleborough and Todmorden – once the longest railway tunnel in the world and home to one of the biggest underground fires ever recorded.

    Cardington Airship hangers:

    Built to house the R100 and R101 – now mahooosive film sets, I believe.

    mrchrispy
    Full Member

    of all the gumph on STW that entertains me in many ways…this is the thread of the year (so far). As an ex civil/structural engineer I just love this stuff. well player peeps.

    skidartist
    Free Member

    No single one is a landmark as such, but the thousand or so bridges that Telford built in the highlands completely transformed the region.

    The Churchill Barriers built of sunken ships in Orkney are pretty cool

    again not a landmark, but above the Cromarty Firth one of the mountains was hollowed out to store oil for the fleet during the first world war, there are six huge tanks in there, each the size and shape of a cathedral

    njee20
    Free Member

    Ribblehead Viaduct, pretty well known, but awesome.

    Never seen that aqueduct at Winsford, which is very odd, I spent 3 years riding all round there, must've been past it!

    That Millenium walkway is cool.

    There's one near me which is interesting rather than impressive or anything else, dates from the early 20th century, when the station at Rudgwick was built the gradient was too steep, so they built a bridge on top of an existing bridge to reduce the gradient out of the station. Now part of the Downs Link path.

    montylikesbeer
    Full Member

    The first passenger railway terminus in the world

    Kevevs
    Free Member

    really like this thread

    Bewdley flood defences.
    Not on the same scale as some of the other examples, but an impressive engineering solution to a local problem.

    The black railings poking out of the water mark the edge of the quayside.
    The aluminium barrier mounts in holes in the ground and is only erected when floods are likely.
    It's a strange feeling standing behind the barrier looking over the top at all that fast flowing water level with your waste.
    Worth a look if your in the Wyre Forest during a flood.

    twosheds
    Free Member

    Someone please stick a pic of the wooden structure on the tyne. Near blaydon? Its pretty impressive……………

    Stoner
    Free Member

    wow. Isnt bewdley the posh one! 😉

    In upton we only get "temporary" flood barriers 🙁

Viewing 40 posts - 41 through 80 (of 222 total)

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