All aboard the world’s ONLY moving aqueduct

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

This link came up in one of my IT comics this morning and I thought the group would find it interesting. It's about an improbably an unique solution to an engineering need.

Model Engineering writ large!

Hope it's of interest

Iain

[Iain DownsParticipant @iaindowns78295]

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Impressive but it's the only swinging not moving aqueduct. The Falkirk Wheel moves as well, for a start – equally impressive engineering proving we can STILL do it in the UK

Neil

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

The Falkirk wheel is truly magnificent but I would question it's validity as a viaduct. All the viaduct definitions on the web boil down to " a bridge like structure carrying water across a valley or depression". The Falkirk Wheel and other boat lifts such as the Anderton do exactly the opposite – carrying water ( and any boat that happens to be floating on it) to a different level.

Thanks for the link Iain, I've been across that aqueduct on a narrow boat and we stopped for a good look at the equally impressive engineering.

Pedantry rules,

Rod

[OldMetallerParticipant @oldmetaller]

Thanks for posting that Iain. I was taken to see that as a child, indeed I grew up in Salford and my Dad was a BT Police officer on the docks. He once took me on an informal walkabout, I don't imagine a uniformed officer would be allowed to take his child to work nowadays. I vividly remember seeing huge ships very close up, also being taken right up to the steam locos that were still working the docks in those days (the early '60's), I remember being terrified of them!

My favourites were the self-propelled steam cranes, with their corrugated iron sheds, that drifted about the place wreathed in escaping steam.

I could lie in bed at night and hear the endless shunting going on, the remote thumping of a giant steam hammer and, when it got light, the chorus of factory and mill whistles going off. It seems like another world, now.

No wonder I've loved railways and boats all my life.

Regards,

John.

[Author]

Posts