A Winter
Miscellany (Continued). On
21st January 2012, members of the club's Southern Area enjoyed a winter
walk around the Rotherhithe peninsula, an area which used to be home
to the Surrey Docks and – as a result – is full of industrial
archaeology. The railway remains are limited and amount mainly to
a series of tracks once used by travelling cranes at the various docksides,
but there is plenty else of interest, as the following photographs
indicate. After the Rotherhithe photographs, we step back to July
2011 for a look at the world's oldest monorail system ... |
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Above:
This bascule bridge survives at the west end of the former
Greenland Dock, which was used until 1970 for the import of timber.
Bascule bridges use a counterweight (seen clearly at the top right)
to counterbalance the bridge span or 'leaf' and, as a result, require
relatively little power to operate. As can be seen, beautiful weather
attended the walk leader's recce – a week later, members were
not so lucky! 14th January 2012. (Jeff Vinter) |
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Above:
Nelson Dock was a dry dock situated roughly opposite the
modern office developments of Canary Wharf, which can be seen here
on the north side of the Thames. This crane provides a link with the
area's past, although members were unsure whether this survivor was
in its original position or had been transplanted from elsewhere.
14th January 2012. (Jeff Vinter) |
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Above:
Immediately to the north of Nelson Dock, the premises of
Mills & Knight survive – in excellent condition, as can
be seen. Mills & Knight were a firm of ship repairers who were
based here from 1886 until the docks closed in 1970.14th January 2012.
(Jeff Vinter) |
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Above:
The former Rotherhithe fire station, opened in 1903 to replace
an earlier facility and closed finally in 1965, has now been converted
into flats. The red doors on the left, faded to pink, were used originally
by horse-drawn fire tenders. This fire station was one of the busiest
in London, which is not surprising when one considers the vast bulk
of timber that was imported into the surrounding docks. 21st January
2012. (Jeff Vinter) |
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Above:
And now for something completely different, again. The club's
area organisers arrange occasional visits to the continent, where
the steam-hauled Harz Narrow Gauge Railway in Germany is ever popular.
However, an even more unusual survivor is the world's oldest monorail
system – the so-called 'floating tram' in Wuppertal, which our
photographer dubbed the 'Dangly Bahn'. Have you seen anything like
this before? This is the view from the terminus station at
Vohwinkel, which is situated at the south western end of the line.
18th July 2011. (Richard Lewis) |
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Left:
Floating trams pass each other, high above street
level, just outside the Vohwinkel terminus. The vehicles seen
here were built in the 1970s, but Wuppertalle Stadwerke ordered
modern replacements from Vossloh Rail Vehicles of Spain in
November 2011. 18th July 2011. (Richard Lewis) |
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Above:
For three-quarters of its 8½ mile length, the floating
tram runs about 39 ft. above the River Wupper, while elsewhere it
runs about 26 ft. above the valley road. It carries 82,000 passengers
per day between Oberbarmen in the north-east and Vohwinkel in the
south west, the journey taking about half an hour. A major modernisation
programme was completed in the year that these photographs were taken.
18th July 2011. (Richard Lewis) |
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Above:
A view of the aerial track held high above the River Wupper
by a series of gantries. Construction of this system began in 1898.
Trial journeys were being carried out by 1900, when the Emperor Wilhelm
II took a ride, with the system opening to the public on 1st March
1901, although it was not fully completed for another two years. If
you want to read more about the Wuppertal monorail, the Wikipedia
page here
is a good place to start. 18th July 2011. (Richard Lewis) |