Mechanical Landscapes

  • #416 – Blackburn Gas Holder

    A few years ago I spent some time living in Blackburn, and my house was a mile or so away from this huge gas holder. To be honest I never really noticed it. I mean, I knew it was there, but it was just part of the local landscape. I’ve no particular interest in gas…

  • #415 – Leigh Spinners Mill Engine – The Giant Awakes………..

    After years of service, the giant was no longer needed. Obsolete and old, it was given a spot of oil and the blankets were put on. The giant went to sleep, resting, and maybe mourning the loss of it’s twin next door, cut up by the scrapman after a boiler explosion ripped apart it’s lungs.…

  • #414 – Library of Congress Images – Streamliners and The Burlington Zephyr

    A high speed streamlined stainless steel express train – is there anything more effortlessly Art Deco cool than this? Dating back to 1934, the Pioneer Zephyr trains must have seemed to have driven straight off the pages of a science fiction comic when compared to the typical steam locomotive of the day.  The power source…

  • #413 – Pullman Car Works

    This gigantic place was the centre of the Pullman Palace Car empire. Quite literally – the Pullman company built an entire town round the works, and called it Pullman. The town survives today, as does the Pullman brand but very little of the factory does. Google Streetview shows that just the central tower section (and…

  • #412 – Library of Congress Images – Ferris Ships, Western Marine & Salvage and the Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay

    One of the problems with the LoC archive is the erratic key wording and classification. Some pictures are done well, some poorly, some not at all. So it can be pot luck what a search comes back with, and when you are looking for something else a picture may turn up by chance that is…

  • #411 – Library of Congress Images – A Princess Coronation in America

    The Duchess of Hamilton with the Royal Blue on Thomas Viaduct The 38 Princess Coronation class locomotives built by the LMS at Crewe works between 1937 and 1948 were some of the finest ‘top link’ steam locomotives built in the UK. For a while, no. 6220 held the world speed record at 113 mph although…

  • #410 – Library of Congress Images – Mackinac Dock

    More steamers! This is a join up of two images to create a small panorama. It’s a bit distorted as the photographer perhaps didn’t reposition his camera too well between frames, but that’s always a problem if you’re photographing things close to the camera. I’ve had to crop quite a bit off the top and…

  • #409 – Library of Congess Images – SS Majestic Outward Bound

    The SS Majestic was launched in 1889 and so was maybe 12-15 years old when this photograph was taken. She held the Blue Riband for a brief 2 weeks in 1891 with an average speed of 20.1 knots. She was taken out of service in 1912, replaced by Titanic. She was placed in reserve in Birkenhead,…

  • #408 – Library of Congress Images – Cramp’s Shipyard

    I’ve posted a few pictures of American naval ships and naval yards over the last year or so, so here’s a slightly different perspective on the subject. William Cramps shipbuilding yard in Philadelphia was a long established, privately owned shipbuilders that built ships for three major conflicts fought by American forces (the Civil War, World…

  • #407 – Steam on the River Dart

    OK, time for a few holiday snaps, but mine consist of paddle steamers, factories and steam locomotives;) The River Dart runs through 18.5 miles of Devon countryside and is navigable from Dartmouth to Totnes. Dartmouth is best known for its Regatta and the Naval College, but is also a deepwater harbour, although it sees little…

  • #406 – Shadows of the North Exhibition opens at Queen Street Mill, Burnley

    I am pleased to announce that my Shadows of the North exhibition has moved to Queen Street Mill Textile Museum in Burnley, the last steam powered weaving shed in the world. This is the same exhibition that was up at Helmshore earlier this year, but reduced to 15 photographs due to space constraints. If I’m…

  • #405 – Beyer Peacock’s Gorton Foundry

    #405 – Beyer Peacock’s Gorton Foundry

      The Gorton Foundry in 1947, courtesy of Britain From Above Following on from my post on Mather and Platt’s foundry, the (only?) other evidence of East Manchester’s engineering past are the boiler shops of Beyer Peacock’s Gorton Foundry. Like Mathers, the majority of the site has been demolished, but maybe the most significant part…

  • #404 – Mather and Platt’s Park Engineering Works

    I’ve noted on this blog before that Manchester, the so-called first industrial city, now describes itself as a post-industrial city. It’s an accurate assessment as it’s hard to find anything of any consequence that is made in Manchester these days, beyond Cornflakes and Coronation Street. The area to the east of the city was, at…

  • #403 – Pen-yr-Orsedd Quarry Part 3

    #403 – Pen-yr-Orsedd Quarry Part 3

    Winding engine (I think) in one of the sheds. Just a few more random ones from the visit. It was good to have some expert accompaniment on the visit, so thanks again to Iain Robinson for spending a good part of the day with me as he’s very knowledgeable on the local quarry industry and…

  • #402 – Pen-yr-Orsedd Quarry Part 2

    #402 – Pen-yr-Orsedd Quarry Part 2

    While I’m not a frequent visitor to North Wales, I have visited at least annually over the past ten years, and had experienced only one sunny day in that time. So I was pleasantly surprised to experience the area when it wasn’t smothered in cloud, fog and rain. Photographically, this represented a departure from me for two…

  • #401 – Pen-yr-Orsedd Quarry Part 1

    #401 – Pen-yr-Orsedd Quarry Part 1

    I’ve no particular association with the area or the industry, but I have an odd fascination with the slate industry and the way it has shaped the landscape of North Wales. In most industries, once a plant has worn out or is rendered obsolete for whatever reason, the place is either raised to the ground and something…

  • #400 – Library of Congress Images – SS Rotterdam at Holland America Line Terminal, Hoboken

      This is a panorama created from three separate 8×10 glass plate negative scans. Needless to say, the resultant file is rather large! I recently upgraded my computer as my 6 year old PC with 4GB of RAM struggled with files like this, but the new one has significantly more processing power and Photoshop CC…

  • Brymbo Steelworks Foundry – Update

    A bit of a follow up to the post I made a while back about the foundry roof collapse at Brymbo –  I’ve been informed by the Brymbo Heritage Group that the roof has now been safely removed and the walls made safe and watertight. I suppose this is a case of having to move…

  • #398 – Library of Congess Images – Main Street Buffalo

    I’m guessing that this photograph was taken by some intrepid photographer climbing a tall riverside gilding such as a grain elevator as for the most part, downtown Buffalo looks quite a low lying city with few tall buildings. What strikes me about this scene is the clear summer sky, as so many of the photographs…

  • #397 – Library of Congress Images – Logging train

    Although huge swathes of Britain were once forested, much of this was cleared in mediaeval times and before for use as fuel and construction materials (for buildings and ships). So by the time the steam railway came along, there wasn’t much left and there was no requirement for railway haulage out of the forests. However,…

  • #396 – Shadows of the North at Helmshore extended for another week!

    As there are no plans for using the Hub area of Helmshore Mills for the week commencing 2nd March, I have agreed with the museum to extend the exhibtion by one week. The final day is now 8th March 2015.