Beam engines – f***ing big beam engines at that. Crossness is home to four huge beam engines – Victoria, Prince Consort, Albert Edward (the Prince of Wales) and Alexandra (the Princess of Wales). Prince Consort has been restored to full working condition and Prince Consort is now being worked on. At the other end of the building, Albert Edward and Alexandra lie unrestored and that is where I focused my attention.
I loved this beautifully painted wrought ironwork, and the contrast it made with the silent, unrestored engines behind.
The late afternoon winter sun caught this huge wheel with a lovely colour of light.
Mechanical Landscapes 
For me this has to be your most interesting set ever…fascinating subject, very cleverly, capably photographed with a camera that is well up to the challenges presented. I love them all…could look at this all day!
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Thank you for your generous praise! It is said that constraints encourage creativity, and having just a cameraphone with a fixed lens had a huge influence on how I saw the place and how I subsequently composed. Following on from that, I managed to create a particular look to the photographs in post-processing which I can only equate to a colour version of my monochrome approach. I’ve since tried to apply it to the photographs on theviewfromthenorth.org and it’s worked quite well for the most part, albeit it’s probably not to everyone’s tastes.
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Really good set, interesting hardware and well photographed…. not sure what the application of the equipment is – deep mine dewatering? With the bright paintwork on some of the pumphouse it looks like some restoration is underway now. Any plans for the 2 unrestored beams to be made functional?
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Thanks for the comment Keith. The engines were there to pump sewage around the London sewer system that was engineered by Bazalgette. In fact, he had some input into the design of Crossness, but I’m not sure if his skillset extended to steam engines. The unrestored engines are basically in a queue, waiting their turn! I’m not sure what the timescales are for starting, it wail depend on completion of the engine currently underway.
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Fantastic!
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Thanks Graham!
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Have just returned to savour these on a big screen rather than a mobile! Lovely set indeed, Andy. I especially like #1 and #3 – great light and interesting floor texture. I am also keen on the one looking down on the pillars.
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Thanks Graham! I took a lot of pictures at Crossness, narrowing then down to a selection was tricky. Unfortunately, none of these were used by O2 in the campaign in the end, a shame really.
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