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Saturday Timewatch returns with another look at the Isle of Portland's military history. The date of this photo is unknown. However, it is after 1881 when the southern entrance was completed. A regiment of soldiers leave the citadel.
Today, with the citadel being a prison, this entrance is no longer in use but it remains very recognisable.
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back almost a century to show what a Dutch steel hulled Gaff Cutter from the 1930s looks like under sail. This is the sailing vessel Moonfleet, currently based in Portland Harbour.
Kicking off Saturday Timewatch for 2023 is a photo of some remaining and still active fishing huts along Pebble Lane, Chiswell, Isle of Portland. Commercial fishing has taken place for centuries off the island with many fishermen operating from Chesil Cove just over the shingle bank seen towards the top left of the photo. It is a hazardous occupation and a hazardous place to live and work. Numerous violent storms have raged in hereabouts over the decades and centuries, so much so that flooding in Chiswell is a fact of life. The last major flood event took place as recently as early 2014.
You can still see aspects of the original construction on the buildings, using the locally available Portland stone.
By the way, "Chesil" is olde Englsih for pebble!
In early January 1901, "The Lucas Gusher" on Spindletop Hill, just south of Beaumont, TX, changed the economy of Texas for a century and more. For better or worse, it helped to usher in the petroleum age. During 9 days it spewed forth more oil than that produced in the entire state during the previous year. A boomtown was born, almost literally overnight.
Above is a detail from a 1973 painting "Old Spindletop and Gladys City" by local artist Holmes Ed Jones. Below is a photo of a 1903 photo, just two years after the initial discovery.
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back almost exactly 7 years to my one and only week-long visit to Arkansas. It features the rather obscure Arkansas and Missouri railroad, established in 1986 as a Class III Railroad operating a 150 mile route from Monett, Missouri to Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Built in 1965, locomotive 42 is nearest to the camera with 58 furthest away, built just one year later. For the aficionados, both are Alco C420s.
Even with a grain silo in the photo, I can't place the exact location. However, I suspect it was taken at a crossing in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Although only a mile from Corfe Castle, we unexpectedly came across this bridge as we had no idea it was there.
It is known as Copper Bridge, currently a public bridleway and public footpath over Corfe River. The humpback bridge dates from the 1800s and used to be on the main route from Corfe Castle to Church Knowle. Pedestrians would go over the bridge whilst animals forded the river.
I can find no information as to why it was known as Copper Bridge. For example, as far as I know, copper extraction has never taken place in Dorset.
I couldn't let today pass without a bonus "Timewatch" photo from 2011 featuring a Virgin Pendolino slowing to a brief halt at Macclesfield Station after an approx 1 hour 45 trip en route from London Euston to Manchester. Yesterday (7th December 2019) saw Virgin's final service on Britain's WCML (West Coast Main Line) and as of today the new franchise commenced operated by Avanti West Coast.
Not everyone will agree but from my fairly extensive rail passenger travels, Virgin Trains were Britain's best Train Operating Company (TOC) for 22 years by a country mile. I'll concentrate on the Manchester - London service...
* Three services per hour for much of the day
* Fast services...around 2 hours.
* Reasonable comfort.
* Quirky and efficient staff.
* A decent reliability, sometimes thwarted by Network Rail workings rather than any failing of their own. You often arrived a few minutes early in London.
* Cheap tickets, so long as you could book in advance. I often got tickets in the £10 - £20 range.
* Their early introduction of automatic delay-repay.
* ....and who could forget the 'talking toilets' !
I'll even add that on several occasions their internet booking system even allowed my purchase of First Class tickets at a cheaper price than Standard Class, giving access to their terminus lounges, free newspaper, food and drinks on board. Result! I'll never forget a mid-evening trip back up north in First Class. The chap reminded me that he was only allowed to serve me seven free alcoholic beverages per trip. Did I want to be carried off the train my destination? No!
The new franchise have a hard act to follow.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features a roadside billboard photo taken in either July or August 1980, shortly before Hughes Airwest was purchased by Republic Airlines. The 35mm slide photo was taken out west in America and given the destinations mentioned (Houston Hobby and Denver) it was likely to have been in or around Las Vegas. For those who want more detail, here is the wiki about the airline whose slogan was "Top Banana in the West" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_Airwest
It was on this day 51 years ago, November 24 1973, that I was lucky to attend Mr. Bob's gig at Manchester Polytechnic. The next generation down has now somewhat unexpectedly become a real fan, witnessed here by her playing the Legend Vinyl Gold edition released in the US in 2018.
I readily admit that all these years later I have no detailed recollection of the gig.....can't think why! What I do know is that I was incredibly lucky to have been there on just his second tour of Britain for my one an only live show by the legend. I reckon I was one of about 200 people who were there. He had played Manchester University earlier in the year but I missed that. I suspect that it was during the summer of '73 that his music landed in my house. His first Island Records album, Catch a Fire, had been released in April of that year closely followed by Burnin' in mid-October. This tour of largely university venues was to promote the album.
This 11th Bob Marley track to make the jukeboxes was recorded just the night before at Leeds Polytechnic. Note the compare quite correctly, given the album title of that time, introduced the band as 'The Wailers' though the poster says 'Bob Marley and the Wailers'
bithbox # 246
Many stations have had and some still do have a "Railway Hotel" in close proximity. This example is from Wareham, Dorset. Fortunately the sign still exists because for many years now the establishment has traded as the Monsoon Indian restaurant.
I think the locomotive is a depiction of King Arthur, 453, that belonged to the London and South Western Railway. Any correction or further information on that is welcome.
Radar was certainly not invented near Worth Matravers on the Isle of Purbeck. However, as war broke out, from May 1940 - May 1942, this site a couple of miles from the village became the nerve centre for radar development in the UK. Previously it was on the Suffolk coast but that was far too close for frequent enemy bombing raids.
This memorial was unveiled 25 years ago, specifically in memory of Dr. Bill Penley who was one of the radar team, but also a founding member of the Purbeck Radar Museum Trust.
On the Isle of Portland, Dorset, there are still disused derricks that were once used to lift blocks of the famous Portland Stone.
It is surprisingly difficult to find much written or pictorial history about them. Their situation on the edge of cliffs strongly suggests they were initially used to lift blocks of stone from the quarry onto a waiting vessel below for transportation off the island. Later, some at least were also definitely used to lift small rowing / fishing boats in and out of the water.
To put it mildly, both operations must have been precarious. Even on a calm day, Portland experiences significant swells and fast running tides, not to mention underwater rocks adjacent to the cliffs.
Nevertheless shipping out appears to be the original purpose of the cranes. Below there are two historic photographs taken in the same era approximately 15 miles away on the Purbeck coast. One clearly shows a vessel waiting offshore to be loaded.
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back almost exactly 25 years to July 29 1995.
The butterfly is a Purple Emperor (Apatura iris). The link below shows the upperwings. The photos were taken in Bentley Wood on the Wiltshire/ Hampshire border. Today's flickr post transfers the original prints to digital. It is the only time that I have ever seen Purple Emperor so these are my only photos in a lifetime.
A tiny population (maybe less than a dozen) exists in the north east of Dorset. However, I have never yet managed to find one despite several attempts.
Compared to some similar ventures, Sherborne Steam and Waterwheel Centre is run by volunteers on something of a shoestring. It was one of their occasional open days this weekend and both their restored waterwheel and this Hindley engine were running, though I should point out they are not currently linked together.
The back story is that in the 19th century, waterborne diseases were rife in Sherborne, just like many towns and cities throughout Britain. For example, in 1829 a gentleman from Salisbury was not impressed when he visited the town. He wrote ‘The lower part of Sherborne is a most obnoxious place. The stench in Half Moon Street is such as to cause ordinary gentlemen to vomit and ordinary ladies to be overcome by attacks of the vapours. Those persons living in this part of the town have become so used to this awful stench that they go about their daily work as if living in the middle of a fragrant flower meadow’.
In the late 1860s a plan was developed and quickly implemented for a waterwheel connected to lift pumps to move clean water from two new boreholes up to a reservoir at the top of the town. A photo concerning this may follow on another occasion. In 1876, only 7 years later, demand for clean water was so great that a new steam engine was built by E S Hindley of Bourton, near Gillingham, Dorset to draw water from the boreholes and boost the waterwheel's output.
The photo above shows a very similar and now restored Hindley steam engine that originally ran at Gillingham brickworks. It is now in full working order but currently does nothing more than run the eleven foot flywheel that weighs about two tons. By the way, the volunteers managed to get hold of the coal-fired boiler, seen at the far end, when it became redundant from heating a greenhouse in Holland!
Built in the eighteen century, this barn stands close to the church where William Barnes preached in the hamlet of Whitcombe flic.kr/p/2p64hQP Thanks to the current owner, it is still in very good condition, including the thatched roof seen here from the inside.
There are more famous locations along Dorset's Jurassic Coast for fossils. However, after heavy rain and therefore minor landslips last week, there were some decent finds yesterday at Ringstead Bay.
The oyster (Deltoideum delta) is by far the most common at the site and you can find similar on any visit to Ringstead Bay. Looking clockwise, there is a segment from quite a large ammonite. Top left is the best find of the day. It is an echinoid (sea urchin) and is probably one of the micraster species. Next there is a bivalve of some sort. Finally a small piece of belemnite sits on top of some sort of what I think is a fossil tube worm. All of these are from approximately 150 million years ago.
Even experts cannot always be precise concerning fossil finds, so I should repeat what I wrote on my other fossil posts that I am very, very, very far from an expert so rely heavily on information posted by e.g. Southampton University. If any of the above is hopelessly incorrect, i apologise!
BITH'S JUKEBOX #222
CLIFF RICHARD "SUMMER HOLIDAY"
Drop a coin in the slot to hear this classic flashback!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbNP5yqg7hc
The photos were taken this morning in sunny Charmouth on the south coast of England.
Another week, another Saturday Timewatch. This features a classic example of the Isle of Portland's military / naval history, namely Verne High Angle Battery. Hopefully you can click the link below onto large size so you can read the interpretation board about the site.
I don't know how Kim spotted this tiny ammonite fossil amongst dozens of boulders, hundreds of rocks, thousands of stones and hundreds of thousands of pebbles.
According to the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre, the ammonites found locally are around 195 million years old, give or take a few million years.
During the English Civil War, Corfe Castle was a Royalist stronghold. There are variations in the story. However, with her husband away, the gist is that with just a few soldiers, Lady Bankes defended her home from Parliamentary forces during a six week siege in 1643 until relief came due to the arrival of a Royalist force. Three years later, either due to treachery or trickery or both, the castle did fall. Soon afterwards the castle was partially destroyed by the Parliamentarians to look not dissimilar to how it looks today, centuries later.
Saturday Timewatch this week features an old milking parlour. It is not a museum but has simply been left in situ by the farmer from whenever it was last used, presumably after a dairy herd was abandoned.
I was pleased to come across this, possibly just in time. Already there is a small holiday let on the land. Now the rooms next door to this were being completely refurbished with new electrics, plumbing etc etc probably for a second holiday cottage. Maybe this area will be the next project and it will all be lost?
These "Saturday Timewatch" photos might be considered unspectacular. However, the back story has thousands of years of history.
This is Ringmoor, north Dorset. If you look carefully you can see two slightly raised banks leading away towards the tallest tree in the distance. To take the photo, I am standing in the middle of an Iron Age trackway. Behind me it connects within a couple of hundred yards to what is now known as the Wessex Ridgeway, an ancient route that followed the highest ground over many, many miles to connect farmsteads and settlements long before we had 'roads'. This Ringmoor track is a bit like a sunken lane along which animals could be led.
Where it reaches the trees, there is a raised earth ring bank (see photo below). It is about 150' by 100' across. Within that existed an Iron Age farmstead. If you click on the photo below, I've added a note to show where the low raise embankment remains even after several thousand years.
Ordered and built for LNER, this ex-British Railways B1 4-6-0 carries the original "apple green" livery in which she was delivered to the newly-nationalised BR in 1948. Here she powers up the bank from Corfe Castle to Harmans Cross hauling a rare special from London to Swanage.
Wednesday's routing out of Heathrow Airport provided a good view of the royal residence, Windsor Castle. According to WikiWhoKnowsAlmostEverything, Queen Elizabeth has increasingly used the castle as a royal palace as well as her weekend home. It is now as often used for state banquets and official entertaining as Buckingham Palace. It is also a major tourist attraction.
The original castle was built in the 11th century after the Norman invasion of England by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I (1068 – 1135) it has been used by the reigning monarch of the day and is the longest-occupied palace in Europe. From left to right in the photo, you can see the Lower Ward; the Middle Ward and Round Tower; the Upper Ward and the Long Walk in the lower right hand corner. The River Thames is in the upper part of the photo.
This week's "Saturday Timewatch" goes back to 1954. Apart from showing a classic page from an original "Ladybird Senior" book, the following is just so evocative of the time -
"(Blue Tits) are also very fond of pecking off the caps of milk-bottles when left on the doorstep in the morning"
The way around this was to have a box outside the front door. Having collected the empties for re-use, the milkman put the glass milk-bottles inside and put the lid back on!
This week's Sunday Landscape features some of the massive ramparts of Maiden Castle. It is an Iron Age hillfort dating from around 2,400 years ago. Located just outside of Dorchester it is one of the largest in Europe having an area roughly the size of some 50 football pitches.
Mrs. Kim gives scale to the size of the construction, all done without the aid of modern machinery.
(Catching up this week on some road trip photos from the USA)
These two buildings are in a back road, one-horse settlement, name of Carter, Wyoming, population 10 in the 2010 census. However, just behind where I am standing, there is still a very active freight railroad (but with abandoned sidings), which gives the clue as to why Carter existed in the first place. The story goes that in approx 1868 one of the principal railroad locating engineers couldn't obtain a quart of whiskey over what was then the Utah state line on Sunday. So therefore he moved the rail route to pass nine miles to the north in Wyoming, resulting in the establishment of Carter Station at the junction of the east-west Union Pacific Railroad and the new road built from Fort Bridger to the north. A telegraph line was also built to connect the Fort with the Union Pacific Railroad, as it was that fort providing protection to the workers.
The timber building was the Carter Hotel. I don't know anything about the building with the false-frontage flag.
Paddle Steamer Waverley. the last seagoing passenger-carrying paddle steamer in the world, passes the fortified entrance to Portland Harbour. She had just left Weymouth on one of her annual south coast cruises.
Launched in Glasgow in October 1946, she entered service with the London and North Eastern Railway in June 1947, working LNER's Firth of Clyde steamer route from Craigendoran Pier, near Helensburgh, up Loch Long to Arrochar. In her first year in service she wore that company's red, white and black funnel colours, seen here. Other livery features from that year are the traditional brown-grained superstructure and black paddle-wheel boxes, decorated with gold lettering on each side....see post below from 2013.
By the way, the austere building on the top of Portland is Verne Prison.
Today's Saturday Timewatch concludes "Steam Week" with a look back to the reddest of red-letter days in 2019 when witnessing UP's 4014 'Big Boy' highballing through TX after leaving Spring.
The photo is a reworking of one taken at the time. You can also see Mrs. Kim's video and just listen out for that horn at around 34 seconds before 4014 even comes into view.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features a locomotive with quite a varied life. The photo above shows TKh 5387 going across an unmanned crossing at Vierves-sur-Viroi, Belgium, hauling the afternoon passenger service from Mariembourg to Treignes on the heritage Chemin de fer a vapeur des 3 vavallees (Three Valleys Steam Railway).
There are many details of her life that I cannot answer. However, the 0-6-0T locomotive was built in Poland in 1959, destined for work at the Cementownia Saturn (Saturn Cement Plant) Wojkowice, Poland. I do not know when that work came to an end. At some stage she then found herself in England, being a resident at the Northampton and Lamport Railway, though whether this was directly from Poland or via a stint in Belgium again I do not know. What is clear is that in more recent years she has been based at Maldegem Stoomcentrum, Belgium, but is now to loan to Three Valleys Steam Railway.
Two asides :
# 1 The volunteer on the footplate had just got back on board having used a 'flag' to ensure a safe crossing of the road.
#2 A close relative TKh 2944 (built earlier in 1952) currently runs at Churnet Valley Railway, Staffordshire.
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back more than 1000 years. This footpath public right of way is just a tiny section of a lengthy "shire rack" that originally divided two grand estates but now, along more or less the exact same line, divides the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. I've chosen this particular photo because if I've understood the rather complicated history and literature correctly, this coppiced tree coincides with one of the "charter markers" of 956 AD when the boundaries were set.
Dorset is this side of the tree whilst Wiltshire is on the far side. The tree is on the line of a slightly raised 'rack' bank.
This week's Saturday Timewatch continues our musical pilgrimage through Texas. So far this trip there have been ZZ Top in La Grange; Gruene Hall (the oldest dancehall in TX); Bob Wills in Turkey and Hayden Pedigo in Amarillo. Next up is Waylon Jennings who many see as the pioneer of the Outlaw Country musical genre.
Thanks to Kim for her collage showing him as the most famous son of Littlefield, Texas, pop 5871. His younger brother, James, owns and operates Waymore's Liquor Store. After Waylon's death, he converted a small back room of this ex-garage into a tiny museum honouring his elder brother's life and times. Whilst small there is still plenty of memorabilia from clothing to guitars to records, posters and newspaper cuttings etc. James had just left for the day but the lady tending the bar was happy to tell us and another couple who happened to also be making a pilgrimage stop about the various displays.
Luckenbach, Texas, pop 13, is hundreds of miles away so here is one of Waylon's classic tunes
bithbox # 209
Waylon Jennings "Luckenbach Texas"
I should add that despite only having 13 residents, Luckenbach, town motto "Everybody's Somebody in Luckenbach" still has a dancehall. Pretty much everyone who is anyone in country music has played there. Apparently, the 13 residents can be joined by as many as a 1000 music lovers at the weekend.
...that scheduled steam-hauled services ended on the Southern Region of British Rail - July 9th 1967.
Yesterday, the Railway Touring Company ran "The End of Southern Steam" special from London Waterloo to Weymouth and return. With outbound routing via Yeovil Jct, where there is a turntable, the return service was steam-hauled out of Weymouth "the right way around". It is the first time this has happened for a couple of years.
This is not the most spectacular of steam locomotive photos. However, it was a delight to see 34046, Braunton (in my opinion stupidly running under Lord Dowding titles) making easy work of the bank climbing through Upwey Station. I suspect the diesel at the back was providing quite a bit of the power! However, a working steam locomotive still makes a wonderful sound approaching out of sight from Weymouth and then again disappearing out of sight before entering the ridgeway tunnel and coasting back down to Dorchester on the north side of the escarpment.
Created for dA Users Gallery Challenge 98 – Steampunk Fairy 2
Source images with thanks to:
♥ Model by Magikstock
♥ Bird Cage by Made to be Unique stock
♥ Clock by Frozen Stocks
♥ Hat by Richard Symon
♥ Textures by Valeriana Stock and Karen Brown
This image came in 2nd place in the challenge!!
The S&D exploration (Somerset and & Dorset Railway) continues. This is a set of level crossing gates at Corfe Mullen. You can also just make out remnants of track.
Following on from last week's Saturday Timewatch, this view from the sailing vessel Moonfleet is taken whilst going through the North Ship Channel looking south at all the military defences from Victorian to more modern times.
For those that are interested, click on "Official List Entry" for a very detailed article on this and other aspects of Portland Port.
A bonus Timewatch photo this week features the old toll-house at Maiden Newton. On large size, you can just make out the name next to the door.
Should you be interested, there is a good article linked below about toll-houses in Dorset and the above building is indeed mentioned www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2009/11/taking-their-toll/
The history of the Somerset & Dorset Railway towards the southern end of the line is very complicated. I apologise in advance if any details are incorrect.
This typical housing estate scene, with the lady in a purple jacket and a cyclist on the old S&D track bed shows where their own tracks from Bath ended on the curved approach to Broadstone Station. It is here that their services joined London and South Western Railway metals. That company's track bed came in where the modern housing development now exists. However, just a couple of hundred metres through that estate, their old track bed still exists as the Castleman Trailway all the way to Wimborne and Ringwood.
At this point it is easier to refer to the schematic map below.
(Note : Entries for yesterday's music game flic.kr/p/2niU3jH remain open for another 24 hours or so!)
Durdle Pier, on the Isle of Portland, dates back to the 17th century when stone quarries were in the immediate vicinity. According to The Encyclopaedia of Portland History it first appeared on a map dated 1745 as "Dirtle Key" and later as "New Key" or "Dirtle Pier" on a 1765 map. It was "Durtle Pier" on a map from 1800 and "Dirdale Pier" on a map of 1811. Finally it became known as "Durdle Pier" on the Ordnance Survey map of 1863. However, by then, the shipping of stone had already ended when the Merchant's Railway opened in 1826.
A second life commenced lifting fishing boats in and out of the water and this continued until relatively recently, towards the end of the 20th century, when the crane became beyond repair.
For reference, the Purbeck coast is shown in the distance, stretching out to St. Alban's Head.
I hope fluffy5518 won't take umbrage at me for linking a photo from 2009 showing what it was like. The big storms of early 2014 finally did for the structure. All that is left is the remains shown above, with assorted timbers and rusted winches scattered nearby.
Another old building in Trowbridge features as this week's Saturday Timewatch. It is so named because there are no windows.
Dating from circa 1758, it was used as a lock-up for almost a century until the town had an official police station. One use was for locking up drunks until they sobered up.
However, there was clearly more to it than that. During a riot in 1826, the roof was ripped off and the prisoners released. The date is significant as the year saw major labour unrest in many Lancashire mill towns known as The Weavers' Uprising. Remember that Trowbridge's economy of the time was based on wool and weaving. I suspect the two events were connected.
This Type 25 WW2 pillbox now leans at a precarious angle overlooking Ringstead beach in Dorset. It is one of several that have survived in various stages of disrepair along this stretch of coastline.
Looking down part of Neptune's Staircase, a well-known staircase lock on the Caledonian Canal at Banavie. Designed by Thomas Telford and built between 1803 - 1822, it raises or lowers boating traffic some 64' / 20 metres using 8 connected locks.
In the distant shadows, you can just see a Mallaig - Fort William - Glasgow ScotRail service crawling over the swing bridge featured here a couple of days ago flic.kr/p/2seGJ4Y
It should sharpen the garden spade and shears nicely.
Apparently the company still carries on under another name in what is now the Czech Republic. I can find little information about this particular product. However, on the internet I've seen a very similar item made in America dated to the 1930's.
It is 42 years since Star Wars first came out. Not being much of a film fan, I only ever saw the original of the whole saga in a cinema. However, I have never forgotten the event as it was the first and only time I've ever known applause to break out in a cinema at the end of the film.
Fast forward to 2019 and who would have expected such an interesting United special livery to promote the latest episode "Star Wars : The Rise of Skywalker" The United aircraft is a B737 (N36272) and is photographed here on departure from Houston to San Francisco. The details are more visible on large size.
I'm sure it must have happened before but the inside of the aircraft is also themed and can be seen in this link that also explains some of the details of the livery www.insider.com/photos-inside-united-airlines-star-wars-b...
Thanks to Kim for making the diptych!
Operated by the BBMF (Battle of Britain Memorial Flight) this Dakota (ZA947) provided this week's "Saturday Timewatch" post with three circuits and flypasts around Weymouth Bay.
The Douglas C47 not just looked good. She sounded great as well!
(Permit me a memory. In the past, assorted commercial flight diverts and snafus have resulted in some excellent one-off aircraft adventures. One such was my one and only flight in the civil DC3 version of the above. It was over half a century ago, brilliant and never to be forgotten.)
This week's Saturday Timewatch features NS 248 "Sik" based at the Dutch heritage railway ZLSM. There seem to be quite a number of similar machines preserved around the Netherlands country but this one is a runner. Built in 1935 by Werkspoor, the class NS 200 diesel locomotive was mainly used for shunting duties.
What is most interesting - and can be seen in the photo - is that the locomotive was designed to be operated from a running board on the outside of the engine.
Southern Pacific Railroad advertising poster, circa 1950.
Interesting to note that some 67 years later, Amtrak's service on the same route takes 44 hours 35 minutes.
Part of the wider Merchant's Railway on the Isle of Portland, the diagonal track plunging down the hill is the Freeman's incline, aka Merchant's incline. Opened in 1826, the purpose was to transport Portland stone from various quarries to what is now known as Portland Harbour.
The system was apparently rather more complicated than the following single sentence suggests. However, the gist of how the incline operated was based on the concept of counterbalance, in which a heavily loaded wagon of stone, once descending, would be counterbalanced by a sufficient number of empty wagons ascending.
The railway finally closed in October 1939.
From this vantage point, it is just possible to make out a little of Weymouth to the top right of the photo. A section of Portland Harbour can be seen. The buildings on the hill on the far side of the harbour are in Wyke Regis. The shingle bank, with a lagoon on the landward side is Chesil Beach, 18 miles / 29 kilometres long, leading towards West Bay, Charmouth and Lyme Regis.
Escapades and photos posted by flickr friends often contain a back story. So it is here. A winter ticket to Texas was purchased way back around Easter before we even knew that Union Pacific No. 4104 was finally making a return to operations in May. We agreed then that if 'Big Boy' ever came south from home base in Cheyenne, Wyoming, we'd be travelling to see it.
Then came news of a nationwide tour on UP rails! However, the schedule was only published as far as September out west and the south west. Would 4014 then head east and more importantly, make sufficiently slow progress so that we too would be in Texas?
To cut a long story sideways, it was only weeks before that it became clear we would arrive in Houston on the very same day, November 6th! The schedule showed a one-day static display on the 7th at Houston's Amtrak station, with departure the following morning to start heading back north towards Cheyenne.
So on the very first morning back in the Lone Star State, it was straight down to H-Town's station for the time-limited open day. Predictably the conditions were nothing short of monsoon like. Nevertheless thousands turned out, photography was nigh on impossible and where the locomotive was parked meant you could not get any full side-on view.
Nevertheless, returning home like drowned rats, knickers soaking wet; shoes sodden; everything wet, wet, wet, we agreed it was still wonderful.
The photo above gives a hint of the deluge, outlined against the darkness of the cab. The photo below show the sheer size of the wheels. The second subsidiary photo, taken leaning over the fence, catches the fire and something of the length of the train.
Tomorrow, there'll be information about the locomotive and photos giving much better views of 4014 out on the tracks as we chased the train!