On A Par With Brunel?
Joseph (later Sir) Bazalgette (g as in "gendarme" not g as in "get") was of French descendancy, hence his name's pronunciation, and rose to the dizzy height of Chief Engineer to the Metropolitan Board of Works. Born in 1819, died in 1891, he was a prolific worker; most famous for his new sewer system for London, which made a massive contribution to Public Health. His memorial lies, not just in the "down below" bur in the very visible stuff he designed or managed.
He was busy and prolific in other ways ...
... although fbb suspects that Mrs Bazalgette contributed much of the hard work!
His clever plan for Hammersmith was to build a new bridge, but to plonk it on the stone piers of the original. His designs for the superstructure were significantly more florid than those of Tierney Clark.
Typical of his lavishness was his design for embellishment of the smaller anchoring towers at both ends of the structure. The statuary is ornate enough ...
... but Joe wanted a classic coat of arms. He was not satisfied with one heraldic embellishment ...
... he had seven. At one time they were painted in their authentic heraldic colours ...
... but Hammersmith and Fulham Council has seen fit to economise with base green and a few dabs of gold. Pity!
In the centre is the UK Royal Insignia, the clockwise from centre left we see ...
City of London (with cross)
Kent
Guildford
City of Westminster (portcullis)
Colchester - and
Middlesex
... all surrounded by the very English Acorns and Oak leaves.
The bridge has been through the wars since the war, as summarised by the timeline below.
1939 : IRA attempts to blow up the bridge.- FAILED
1973 : Refurbished
1984 : Barnes-side tower bearings failed
1987 : Further remedial work
1996 : Provisional IRA attempted to blow up the bridge - FAILED
1997 : CLOSED except buses, cycles and pedestrians
1998 : Re-opened with 7.5 ton weight limit.
2000 : Damaged by a Real IRA bomb - CLOSED FOR 2 YEARS
2014 : Closed for further repairs
2016 : Further work delayed by wrangle over who pays!
Which brings us to the situation that developed from 2019.
Continued in tomorrow's blog.
History Made At Kings Cross
fbb remembers a discussion with his future brother-in-law (John), way back in the late 1960s, when signal boxes featured. Bro-in-law said that he had read an article which suggested that British Railways (of fond memory?) had a cunning plan to serve the whole of mainland Britain's rail network with just FIVE mega signal boxes.
John could not remember where he had read it and fbb doubted the veracity of the report. Even in 2021, there are still a good few "real" signal boxes in operation, usually on secondary lines and thus contributing to the poor financial performance of said routes.
But along came "Power Boxes" with those at Euston, Bletchley and Rugby controlling the main line whilst the Northampton loop retained men, levers and wires. Power Boxes have now morphed into signalling centres with wider and wider areas of coverage.
Last week the Power Box at Kings cross ...
... was switched out at 2359 on 24th ...
... leaving the obligatory coffee cup to languish into obscurity. Busy computer screens ...
... went dark ...
... and the last train to be signalled by the man ...
... set off northwards.
From the witching hour ...
... the signalling centre at York was in charge.
There's no window for the signalman to lean out, give the train driver a cheery wave and be acknowledged with a toot of the horn.
Sad, but the inevitable computer screen is now king - big screens admittedly!
And no coffee mug in sight!
A later plan from Notwork Rail is slightly less draconian than just FIVE signal boxes; ELEVEN will be needed say the boffins, but recent schemes to move more areas into mega signalling centres seem toi have been dropped. Maybe big is not as beautiful as the bosses once thought?
And there's more.
Also at Kings Cross, THIS has happened.
The refurbished eastern bore of the tunnels immediately north of Kings Cross Station is now finished and available for use. The opening was celebrated by parading a Thameslink and an LNER train running into the platforms.
The tunnel was taken out of use about 40 years ago as part of a "track rationalisation" and is now needed to increase the capacity of the station and its approached. Presumably it is now irrationalised?
Proper job!
It is good to see that, in this electronic age, there is still a need to label the tracks "A" and "B" in case the train driver gets lost! It is not always all on line!
48 Bars : Could Have Been 168
Has fbb taken to drink? Thankfully, no!
Those of our readers who are old enough to remember the Triang platform canopy may also remember that its glazing consisted of a flimsy sheet of plastic with frames printed on in yellow.
fbb has learned his lesson, namely that thin plastic goes brittle if left outside and is insufficiently robust to resist the impact of scale medicine balls flung at it at great speed. Raindrops cannot be reduced to 4mm scale!!
So yesterday fbb spent a whole morning adding glazing bars, but two per opening not the original Triang 7, 48 vice 168.
fbb will not be subjecting his readers to progress with painting as reading about paint becoming dry is almost as tedious as watching it. But when the livery is finished, fbb will have to attend to the glazing and fitting the lights.
Next Hammersmith (plus) blog : Wednesday 28th April
Bazalgette's memorial doesn't just reside in the things he built, as there is a somewhat unknown monument to him on the Victoria Embankment, adjacent to Hungerford Bridge.
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