Saturday Variety

 Eiffel In Yorkshire?

Above is a picture of Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire, just. The town is a tad to the west of Halifax ...

... and take note of those four storey houses on the hillside, a distinctive feature of the town.

Only they aren't! They are NOT four storey houses at all. Thy are two two storey terraces built on top of one another, as in the diagram below.

The front doors are marked with a blue arrow; there are no back doors. But look at that road name on the left.

So, if you approach the town on the Halifax Road and then fork right up a hill called Birchcliffe Road ...

.., you come to this building.

Some locals call that bit with the turret "The Eiffel Tower". On the left is the thoroughfare called Eiffel Buildings ...

... with the road leading back down to a bus stop (see below). 

To the right of the tower you will find Eiffel Street.

Just peeping in on the left are the top halves of the properties on Eiffel Buildings. The top of the houses on Eiffel Buildings are actually on Eiffel Street.

So what was Gustave Eiffel doing on a residential hillside in Hebden Bridge?

Nobody seems to know. Here is an extract from the work of a local blogger.

A nice, sunny Sunday, which I saw nothing of, being confined at home grading assignments and wondering (among other things) what I was going to offer for today’s shot. But I did not give up; as night fell I got this shot of the tenement-style housing across the way. Why this line of top-and-bottom housing (the upper levels will be a different house from the lower, facing the street behind) is named for Gustave Eiffel I have no idea, probably it was all being built around the same time as that tower in Paris and so someone paid tribute.

Any other offers?

A nice way of getting there is to combine it with a ride on the Keighley Bus B3, branded Bronte Bus ...

It runs every hour and the ride is glorious.

Talking Of Glorious Rides

Here is a picture of a bus in splendid country.

Where is it?

Where is the country and where is the bus?

Answer tomorrow.

Tiny Mini Tampo Magnificence

A few days back fbb was talking about "Tampo", more correctly "pad" printing. Oxford Diecast makes (gets someone in China to make?) a vast range of diecast model vehicles including hundreds in OO scale. They have just announced three highly decorated Minis.

Here are enlargements of the "pad" printed artwork on the side panels.

Superb detail for a tiny mini but at a superb price as well. £9.95. OUCH!

But even more OUCH is this HO model.

It is not OO gauge (4mm to the foot) at but HO at 3.5mm - so too small for OO scale layouts! And ...

... the price is too big for ANY layout.

 YIKES!

Here We Go Again

How many times have we met a bus that runs on road and rail?

This delightful little creature is about to re-open an SNCF branch - maybe.

The branch from Étang-sur-Arroux to Autun ...

... closed since 2020, is to reopen in 2025 or 2026 as a commercial testbed for the Flexy battery-electric lightweight road/rail car. The €15 million cost is financed by a grant from Corifer (Council for Railway Research & Innovation) announced at the end of June, permitting running trials to start in the autumn. 

Gare Autun, below.

On reopening, there will be up to 10 return journeys daily.

Flexy has been developed under SNCF’s Tech4Mobility innovation programme by a consortium of Michelin, Milla Group and the Railenium research institute, with support from Bretagne and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté régions. Based on a Renault Master van with the chassis modified to accept Michelin’s patented road/rail wheels, Flexy has capacity for 14 passengers. 

This map shows the route ...

Google Maps indicates an intermediate stop at Laizy, the station being called Brion Laizy. Google doesn't go down the dirt track leading to the station but an enlargement via Google Streetview suggests thare are few facilities ...

... and few passengers. There isn't even a platform!

The line is VERY rural and VERY "basic".

To pick up and drop-off passengers, the car can leave the rails at level crossings or ‘intersection platforms’ and run on local roads. Battery power provides an operating range of up to 200km with speeds of up to 50 km/h on road and 70 km/h on rail.

Will it be a huge success like its many, many failed predecessor.

Japan?

Germany?

U.K.?

Time will tell! 

The UK's Eiffel Tower

fbb is reminded by correspondent Andrew of a possible competitor in the tall tower stakes. Edward Watkin of Great Central Railway and proposed Channel Tunnel fame decided to give his Metropolitan Railway passengers somewhere to travel to.

His plan was to out tall the Eiffel Tower, but at Wembley!

Only the first section was built and opened ...

... offering a very limited fun experience! When one corner started sinking, it was closed and subsequently demolished.

If only Gus Eiffel had been in charge?

A Little  Modelling Project

fbb's attempt to paint the beading on his ancient coach was only marginally successful. But it will do. Not every carriage on a full sized preserved heritage railway is in tip top condition; so the old bloke is being realistic - a feeble excuse!

He has eventually identified the coach.

It was originally produced in 1963 painted maroon and ivory as part of a set to go with the Caledonian Railway "Single". The real loco is preserved ...

... and the model was a good likeness by 1963 standards.

The coaches were not quite right, as fbb has discovered. But versions were sold in Midland Railway maroon ...

... and fbb thinks that it was a very tatty version of this that he acquired about ten years ago.

As was normal back then, the coach came with no interior furnishing.

So fbb made an attempt to add seats and compartments some years back, The results were horrible. But leading with the beading, himself decided to have another go.

It would, of course, be a bit of a bodge.

A floor was cut to fit - it fitted sort of - and seats were glued on ...

... after a quick nip up the road to Peco at Beer to get some seat shaped plastic strip.

There was potential - with the rest of the seats still to be affixed.

But this is a corridor coach although it has compartments. Or is it?

More research needed. Additionally, some painting is very necessary.

More tomorrow.

 Next Variety blog : Sunday 11th August 

Izzy, Nick, Tom and Gus (2)

Fools Rush In ....

The fool in this case is fbb and not Gustave Eiffel, seen above in a studio portrait with his granddaughters. Trying to cover the worldwide work of the celebrated Engineer, Architect and Meteorologist (who died in 1923 aged 91) in a short blog is just plain daft!

 ... Where Angels Fear To Tread.

Gus was no angel; he spent a couple of years in prison for fraudulent deals during his work on the locks for the Panama Canal! 

But the breadth of his work is simply staggering. This blog will offer a taste, as they say, "in no particular order", of the scope of his work.

The quote, by the way, is from Alexander Pope's Essay on Criticism and, to his deep chagrin, fbb had to look it up. He "did" Pope as part of his A Level English course and had failed to remember the source of those well worn words!

Bad house point!

We begin in 1860 when Gus was nobbut a lad of 26. He was consulting engineer, supervising engineer, designer (sources vary) for what became known as the "Passerelle Eiffel". Passerelle means footbridge or gangway, so the Passrrelle Eiffel was a railway bridge!

It crossed the river Garonne at Bordeaux, effectively linking two chunks of the rail network together. And it did include a footbridge.

It was a long trek!

Until 2008, Eiffel's bridge carried a double track main line electrified and used by TGV trains!

When the new bridge opened the aim was to demolish Eiffel's 1860 crossing but, thankfully, protests were huge and the structure remains, but now inaccessible.

One of the key campaigners was one of Gus's great ((?) granddaughters.

There are proposals to re-open the bridge for pedestrians and cyclists.

And A Double Decker

You can immediately spot the Eiffel style of giant Meccano here in Portugal. The top deck is roadway ...

... and below is railway. Hopefully Portugal has not copyrighted it when pictured at night.

From The Sublime ...

Eiffel designed and built a simple suspension bridge for a park in Paris ...

... but spectacular and delightful.

Gus's biggie in France is the Viaduc de Gabarit ...

... taking an extant railway over a deep gorge.

Bearing in mind it was bult using human power and simple tools, the construction is mind-blowing.

The Viaduc de Garabit is a railway arch bridge spanning the Truyère, near Ruynes-en-Margeride, Cantal, France, in the mountainous Massif Central region.

The bridge was constructed between 1882 and 1884 by Gustave Eiffel, with structural engineering by Maurice Koechlin, and was opened in 1885. It is 1,854 ft in length and has a principal arch of 541 ft span.

Back to girders on piers for this one.

Here fbb has forgotten to note where it was, but he has recorded what it has become. The girders have gone but one pier is equipped with a launch pad for bungee jumping.

Would Gus, as a lover of the spectacular, be impressed with its recycled purpose or disappointed to lose his Meccano?

Not Just Bridges

Here is what looks quite innocently like a waterside warehouse in Izmir, Turkey. 

It looks a bit like a shopping centre now (which it is!) but here is a shot of the renewal and rebuild.

But once inside, we can, once again, see Gus's Meccano in the roof.

Then the bus station in La Paz, Bolivia ...

... still very much in use today!

And still beautiful ...

... maybe the most beautiful bus station in the world!

General Post Office Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam.

Also very much the place to purchase philately and post your post.

Nyugati Station in Hungary ...

... also very much in use but due for a massive extension "round the back".

Nice Observatory ...

... iron framed, of course!

Dijon Fruit and Veg Market ...

... cuts the mustard!

And beautifully formed in Angola!

Palácio de Ferro is a historical building in the Angolan capital Luanda, believed to have been designed and built by – or by someone associated with – Gustave Eiffel.

Maybe, or matbe not?

The Legacy Lives On ...

The Millau Viaduct is so big you simply cannot comprehend it.

From base to tip of the main piers it is taller than the Eiffel Tower!

The bridge deck (but not the towers) was built by the Eiffel Company!

Gus would be oh so proud of that!

Is Gus a greater engineer than Izzy, Nick or Tom? His work was certainly flung wider over the globe than Izzy or Tom. Nick's AC electricity is a special case because there is an awful lot of it about!

 Next Variety blog : Saturday 10th August