Posting has been rather light recently because I have been away.
During the course of my travels I managed to get a look at a number of interesting bridges like the Humber suspension bridge, Whitby swing bridge, Teeside transporter bridge, the Newcastle Millennium bridge and finally, the Forth bridges.
Incidentally, and to keep even a tenuous military theme, the Humber Suspension bridge was designed by Sir Ralph Freeman, a Royal Engineer and member of the Experimental Bridging Establishment at Christchurch, Dorset, forerunner to MEXE.
As I was sitting on a seaside park bench in Seaham, eating fish and chips, I also noticed something familiar in the distance, a Prince of Wales block I assume, on its way to the ship yard.
No travel picture set is complete without a container either, here is a containerised kitchen/canteen, on the side of a factory building in Newcastle upon Type.
Normal posting service should resume shortly!
Now that’s what I call a holiday! Makes my impending trip to Paris seem quite mundane by comparison (I’ve decided to take X’s advice and avoid Spain – going to the shores of our new bestest allies).
Edit: That is if the b*ggers aren’t on strike.
I pray that Mrs TD shares your enthusiasms more than Mrs DV. would share them.
Have you seen these about the Mosul Dam
2005 http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/sep2005/a090905ms3.html
2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7069109.stm
2011 http://www.waterpowermagazine.com/features/featurean-unprecedented-task
Apparently the US Corps of Engineers considered it the most dangerous dam in the world. It is apparently built on soluble rocks so it suffers internal erosion euphemistically called seepage and grout is pumped in round the clock to fill the cavities,
If it fails with the full impound, the Tigris would rise 65 m in Mosul and 5 m in Baghdad No wonder the Kurds & US are fighting to regain control.
Just so you dont think I am actually that sad, the bridges were on the way to where we were going, the PoW block just happened to be passing whilst I was eating my chips and as for the containerised canteen, was passing. Did have to stop and reverse for the shot though :)
When I was little it was a treat to be taken for a ride on the Transporter Bridge :)
I can’t imagine Gypsum being a remotely stable foundation. Half a million could die if the dam fails.
It is being refurbed so is shut until Autumn. Also had a quick detour to the old Tees Bridge as well, the one with the raising bridge deck, although it was last raised in the nineties I think.
Industrial heritage, nothing wrong with combining that with a dirty weekend with the missus !
Had a drive over to Holy Island as well, bloody windy
Spent a long weekend in Durham in 1994(spot the Southerner at the bar, shocked he got change from a fiver for 3 pints of bitter). So did the transporter bridge ride( a 21stC one for the Isle of Wight?). Also overnight on Holy Island. Crikey its quiet (apart from the wind) when the trippers are gone & the tide has cut it off.
Last year, I was too cowardly to use the Forth bridge when I heard about its rusting cables, so a good excuse to try the new Clackmannan bridge instead.
Been going to Holy Island since I was very small. It fun to have picnics on the top of the Tank blocks next to the entrance to the causeway. From there you can sit and watch people try to kill there cars driving them over the causeway as the tide comes in.
@John Hartley
Not cheap in Durham any more I am afraid , other half at Uni there so Castle College the Middle Common Room Bar a must for affordable drinks :-)
I was waiting for the Transporter Bridge when a chap in the queue told me, apropos of nothing much, that the reason Ridley Scott likes to put huge industrial hellscapes studded with flare stacks and refinery towers in his films (Blade Runner, Alien, Black Rain) is that he grew up in Middlesborough and that was what he saw every morning when he walked to school.
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That explains why its also always raining in his films- he even had rain inside nuclear reactor and a space ship!
Spent happy four hours at helm of 40 footer under power ending up trying to get firm ground for anchor off Holy island – went ashore but had to walk round with flare pack as could not be left in dinghy – it was Feb clear night bloody cold and Helpop?? comet looked as if you could touch it.
Best fish and chips in world used to be Charlies in Amble!
Understand that one section of Elephant arrived at yard and had to moor up because of trouble with lock gates (last weekend?)
Also saw on last visit to Barrow that one of the three OPV’s has left mooring. just by Morrison’s entrance was C Truck used on windfarm. Nice looking little vessel. Noticed several of the other support boats alongside are fitted out with gallows and submersibles.
Looking to left was the new Astute.
Supermarket shopping can be fun!!!
As an aside heard modified version of the good ship Venus ‘ figurehead was the skipper in bed …..’
‘Captain changed her name to Mable and whenever she was able gave the crew ……’
The block off Seaham was CB02C from Portsmouth (left last Wednesday or Thursday).
The one in Rosyth (LB03) may be going for a slightly different assembly procedure on PoW than QE. On QE that block went straight into dock, docked down and had its centre blocks erected on top, but was then floated out as LB02 arrived from Portsmouth. This time LB02 will be up there in about a fortnight, so might be going to do the sensible thing and float them in together and in the right order, before docking down and erecting the above hangar blocks.
It’s also a minor emb8ggerance opening the tidal entrance to move barge block combos in and out now that QE is afloat in the basin.