This photo is titled ‘Columbia Steel Company at Ironton, Utah a locomotive outside the blast furnace’. The Utahrails website gives an early history of the steelworks, but doesn’t explain its relatively short life of only 40 years. Despite the lack of established heavy industry in the area, Utah was home to deposits of iron ore,…
Author: Andy
#388 – Steam Engines at the Bolton Steam Museum
Bolton Steam Museum is the home of the Northern Mill Engine Society, and as I last visited about 5 years ago, I was overdue a re-visit! The society was formed in the 1960’s when mill engines were being scrapped at an alarming rate, a combination of the sudden decline of the textile industry and electrification…
Follow me on Facebook!
My initial dip of the toe in the social media pool was in 2011 when I set up a Facebook page – and promptly did nothing with it. Four years on, I’ve decided that I need to do something with it, so this is the formal launch it never had four years ago! http://www.facebook.com/theviewfromthenorth My…
#387 – Industry by Night
I thought I’d posted these before, but it appears not. These were taken in 2010 on a cold January evening in Redcar on Teeside. The Tata steelworks was due to shutdown within the next few weeks and it looked like the end of steelmaking in the North East was imminent. The mill was shut down…
#386 – Mill Lodge and Chimney
There’s not many factory chimneys left in Lancashire, and very few of those are actually still used. This one at Pincroft Dyers in Adlington near Chorley is one of the few exceptions, and is one of the few remaining printers and dyers left in the area. Other than the cladding on the buildings, this scene…
#385 – theviewfromthenorth.org updates
I first launched theviewfromthenorth.org in 2007, and while new content is only added infrequently at the moment, I do periodically tidy things up a bit. Part of the problem is its size – there are over 60 galleries and nearly 1000 pictures, all processed with varying degrees of skill and attention to detail over the…
#384 – Next exhibition – Shadows of the North at Helmshore Mills Textile Museum UPDATED WITH NEW DATE
I am pleased to announce that my next exhibition will open on Monday 22nd 16th February 2015 at Helmshore Mills Textile Museum in Helmshore, near Rossendale in Lancashire. Shadows of the North is a complement to my Mechanical Landscapes exhibition and focuses on the textile mills of the north of England. It will be slightly larger…
#383 – Fiddlers Ferry Steam on the landscape
Driving back from Bolton Steam Museum the other day, I took the marginally more scenic route via Horwich. Chorley Old Road climbs quite high and is always a good spot for some pleasant views, but I was quite surprised to see the steam rising from Fiddlers Ferry Power Station near Warrington on the horizon. The…
#382 – Library of Congress Images – Paddle Steamer Tashmoo
If you’re slightly familiar with some of my blog posts from this year, you’ll have seen a number featuring the Lake Lucerne paddle steamers in Switzerland. So it felt like a good idea to look at what the Library of Congress archive held when it came to paddle steamers. Answer – hundreds. This is just one of…
#381 – Library of Congress Images – Really Big Machines
While browsing the Library of Congress Historical American Engineering Record, I came across some photographs of something I had actually seen. A few years ago, I visited the Wyman Gordon Forge in Worcester, Massachusetts in an official capacity to see their (almost) unique 50000 ton press in action. For a piece of metal bashing machinery,…
Mechanical Landscapes 