Interesting unknown engineering landmarks in the uk

28DL is a great time waste – some stunning photographs to be found.

Electric Mountain at Llanberis is a very interesting trip.

Can we go international? I got the train from Nice to Monte Carlo earlier this month and thought Monte Carlo railway station was very impressive.

For fans of military and spook stuff, this site is brilliant. All sorts of weird and wonderful stuff, very big on cold war infrastructure. Caution: many hours to be lost here, but has added lots of places to go peeking through hedges at on road rides.

http://www.secret-bases.co.uk/%5B/url%5D

i quite like balcombe vidacut, theres a walk near there that goes underneath. when you look through the middle it looks like one of those infinity mirrors

I like Clay Mills pumping station in Burton
One of the 2 engine houses has been restored and steams certain times in the year – (next steaming is 4th and 5th april)

Also – working in the electricty industry, we have some great building/former power stations that are great to have a look round

EDIT – if the picture link doesn't work, check out thier website

clicky here

cxi – I like electric mountain

If we go international – Hoover Dam!

Before it was decommissioned I got to go into Lotts Road power station in Chelsea – my that was an industrial cathedral if ever there was one.

I used to know an elderly gent who had commissioned Bankside Power station in the 50s, I think he told me it had only been used about a dozen times before it was removed from service.

+1 for the Severn Bridge. It's on LEJOG though so does get a fair bit of traffic and it's worth crossing on a bike simply for the fact you get a great view of SSC, and when you get off in the middle the whole thing moves about.

It's a very eerie feeling, but very memorable.

Remember not to drop your nuclear submarine. The Faslane Shiplift.

But handy for repairs when you drive into the French, or the sea bed.

On the small scale, The old ROC posts are interesting, yet concerning.

Corsham is where the English government were supposed to go in the event of the big one – it's all inside the tunnels, I believe.

My ancestors worked on the Plymouth breakwater!

As C-G says, it would be good to do bike rides in different parts of the country and visit some of these!

Crofton Beam Engines on the Kennet and Avon Canal in Wiltshire.
One of the engines there is just short of 200 years old and can still do its original job! It lifts lifts about 12 tonnes of water a minute to supply the canal summit.

cool thread! ONe of the few where I have followed every link and read every post

my favourite engineering landmark is an old one:

taken in conjunction with its neighboring sites:

and

These sites are perhaps not in the same vein as many of the contributions but I think they show a civilisation engaging in massive civil works (something like 4 million man hours to dig the ditch around Avebury) and using materials to venerate and interpret their landscape. I particulary like the theories that the sites developed over several thousand years and were modified and altered to reflect the changes in beliefs and culture.

cool thread! ONe of the few where I have followed every link and read every post

+1, great thread, fascinating.
It never ceases to amaze me, the depth of knowledge and interest of people on STW!

Agree – Great thread

This is one of our older Substation building
It is in Selly Oak and used to be a pumping station. It now houses 2 sections of GEC 11kV switchgear

There is still an air raid siren in the roof space

India Mill in Darwen. Really nice old brick chimney on the front of it that can be seen from the m65 as you pass.

http://www.cottontown.org/page.cfm?pageid=378&language=eng

The chalk tower near Flamborough Head. Built in 1674, this is the oldest surviving complete lighthouse in England.

Lighthouses generally are very impressive mainly due to the location.

can I add trig points and maps – very early 'engineering' that I still use
http://www.haroldstreet.org.uk/trigpoints/download.php?waypoints=28

This is a great thread – i think someone has mentoned Poncysyllte Aqueduct already – but it is truely amazing, and an engineering first.
The amount of work Telford designed/built was truely awe inspiring.
http://www.victorianweb.org/technology/engineers/telford1.html

Roof of York Railway Station is lovelier than any Cathedral.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/11478010

Again, I'm totally amazed at what's been posted… I feel ignorant.

Polite request: We really do need a thread from volunteers that can show us these incredible structures. Can anyone step up to the mark please?

an FLR-9 high frequency signals interception antenna array which, at the height of the Cold War, was used to intercept Soviet and Warsaw Pact communications as well as non-US Diplomatic messages at Chicksands – dismantled in 96.

St Margaret's Bodelwyddan AKA The Marble Church, Built out of lime stone, still looks as clean as the day it was built, just hasn't weathered.

The newish bridge on the Dee at Shotton, is quite special.
http://www.gifford.uk.com/typo3temp/pics/63e016fbcf.jpg

and the Conwy Tunnel on the A55 – built with submerged tunnel sections each 120m long.

We really do need a thread from volunteers that can show us these incredible structures.

Consider it done. 😉

I only 'properly' discovered this the other day having walked/riden/driven past either end of it most weeks for 15 years!

http://www.cliftonrocksrailway.org.uk/

well Manchester Confidential are organizing some tours of Underground Manchester over the coming weeks see here

The Bell Rock Lighthouse:

mental!

The dedication and willpower that went into building it was amazing.

not that unknown, but, awesome nonetheless.. High Level Bridge in Newcastle

Pont De Normandie.. Rather impressive structure.

I know pont aint uk.. but it is beautiful 😛

It's very well known of course, but I couldn't resist posting it. I took this photo a few years ago from my hang glider over the middle of the Severn:

The Union chain bridge over the Tweed just up from Berwick, the oldest suspension bridge still carrying road traffic & It's on the Sustrans route.

Not many know about this one… one of the longest single tunnels in the UK… the cemex chalk slurry pipeline dunstable to rugby

goes from Kensworth Quarry:

92km away to rugby. The quarry is impressive.. deep… Sorry no photos of the pipe tho. I spent over a month in this place logging chalk. Swamped a tractor in a massive puddle… must have been 9-10ft deep, water came in the cab. oops.

while we talking about tunnels then mention to Liverpool for a number of firsts / bests / oldests –

1. Crown Street Station, Liverpool, 1829. Built by George Stephenson, a single track tunnel 291 yards long was bored from Edge Hill to Crown Street to serve the world's first passenger railway station. The station was abandoned in 1836 being too far from Liverpool city centre, with the area converted for freight use. Closed down in 1972, the tunnel is disused. However it is the oldest rail tunnel running under streets in the world

2. The 1.26 mile (2.03 km) 1829 Wapping Tunnel in Liverpool, England, was the first rail tunnel bored under a metropolis. Currently disused since 1972. Having two tracks, the tunnel runs from Edge Hill in the east of the city to the south end Liverpool docks being used only for freight. The tunnel is still in excellent condition and is being considered for reuse by Merseyrail rapid transit rail system, with maybe an underground station cut into the tunnel. The river portal is opposite the new Liverpool Arena being ideal for a serving station. If reused it will be the oldest used underground rail tunnel in the world and oldest part of any underground metro system.

3. 1836, Lime St Station tunnel, Liverpool. A two track rail tunnel, 1.13 miles (1,811 m) long was bored under a metropolis from Edge Hill in the east of the city to Lime Street. In the 1880s the tunnel was converted to a deep cutting four tracks wide. The only occurrence of a tunnel being removed. A very short section of the original tunnel still exists at Edge Hill station making this the oldest rail tunnel in the world still in use, and the oldest in use under a street, albeit only one street and one building

4. The 2.07 miles (3.34 km) Victoria Tunnel in Liverpool, opened in 1848, was bored under a metropolis. Initially used only for rail freight and later freight and passengers serving the Liverpool ship liner terminal, the tunnel runs from Edge Hill in the east of the city to the north end Liverpool docks. Used until 1972 it is still in excellent condition, being considered for reuse by the Merseyrail rapid transit rail system. Stations being cut into the tunnel are being considered. Also, reuse by a monorail system from the proposed Liverpool Waters redevelopment of Liverpool's Central Docks has been proposed.

5. The Mersey Railway tunnel opened in 1886 running from Liverpool to Birkenhead under the River Mersey. The Mersey Railway was the world's first deep-level underground railway. By 1892 the extensions on land from Birkenhead Park station to Liverpool Central Low level station gave a tunnel 3.12 miles (5029 m) in length. The under river section is 0.75 miles in length, being the longest underwater tunnel in world in January 1886. In 1903, the railway was electrified, becoming the first railway in the world to change over completely from steam to electric power. It was originally electrified with a fourth rail system, which was later replaced by a third rail system.

6. Williamson's tunnels in Liverpool, built by a wealthy eccentric are probably the largest underground folly in the world.

7. Queensway Road tunnel under the Mersey 'Birkenhead Tunnel'
The tunnel is 3240m (2 miles) long
In the nine years that it took to build the Queensway Tunnel, 1,700 men worked on the project, of whom 17 were killed.
At the time of its construction it was the longest sub-aqueous tunnel in the world, and held that title for 24 years.

8. The Kingsway (or Wallasey) tunnel entrance is used as the basis of a tunnel entrance in the video game Grand Theft Auto III — during the 1990s, several members of the game's development team had worked for the Merseyside-based development company Psygnosis.

The flight shed

Part of the old Rover works at Longbridge, was at one time the largest unsupported roof in the country.

I have a thing for towers.

Heaton Park

Beetham Tower

Agecroft Power Station

Beetham tower is ugly as – looks like two Jenga kits stacked ontop of each other
Still I guess its an improvement on the rest of Manchester 😛

It may be ugly you cheeky monkey, but you can't deny that it is impressive.

Yep, not a fan of Beetham Tower. its a pointless souless building if ever there was one.

Not as ugly as the Manchester Civil Justice Centre.

It looks like a knackered filing cabinet.

What a fantastic thread! So many fascinating sites, and so many hidden gems. Amazing what we just don't see, really, because we're looking for all the glamorous things.

The London Underground, in it's entirety, is just mindblowingly spectacular in it's creation. Most of it is of course invisible, but the sheer scale of it all, and all the different parts of it, are incredible. And many stations are architectural gems in their own right. It really is a constantly evolving, almost organic 'living' museum.

Iconic. Even the map is a work of art!

(Harry Spider; love that picture of the cooling towers!)

Sorry, the Underground is hardly unknown, but much of it is unseen or overlooked/ignored. Taken for granted.

Crossness Pumping Station in South East London is a wonderful hidden treasure.

Houses (I believe) the World's largest beam engine:

This thread cannot die, resurrection is a must to show respect, although I have nothing of worth to add, sorry.
Reading this I felt like I was a small child again, 'finding' those barely hidden WW2 shelters at Mill Hill public school, & seeing that they were just a dump for old rubbish, still cool managing to slide the concrete covers off the entrances & getting in though! Half the playing field was a shelter with connecting rooms, & tunnels, & hidden porn stashes of course 😉
Best thread of 2010, so far…

or rather. it is getting progressively more and more awesome.