#BankHolidayMonday fun! Haven’t told the bf yet but we’re attempting a 14 hour circular daytrip taking in a boat, a ferry, a steam train, a road train, two tube trains, two mainline trains, two pubs, three buses, prob a lot of rain and likely us not speaking by the end of it 🤓
Boat number 2 (the first one was a #bonus extra) is Headland Maid, an open river cruiser built in 1935 and still doing the daily job she was built to do – plying between Tuckton Tea Gardens and Mudeford Spit – 83 years on. I’ve been coming here since I was a small and I love it.
It’s my favourite train in the *whole wide world* the Hengistbury Head NODDY TRAIN! It’s 50 years old this year & this is Locomotive Nº1: Dunlin. Each bonkers carriage has just two wheels and there’s a luggage wagon at the back for prams, food and bags as no cars are allowed here
I am on an OPEN-TOP BUS. ON A BOAT.
!!!!!!!111. We are literally riding across the sea on a bus; this is the Sandbanks to Studland chain ferry and the Purbeck Breezer @Morebusco Bus and it is absolutely bloody brilliant.
A postcard from Swanage.
Oh whoops oh silly me we seem to be at another steam railway oh well we might as well go on it now we’re here eh
Dunno how the end of your Bank Holiday Monday is going but here at @SwanageRailway it’s going pretty chuffing great so here’s some of it to enjoy wherever you are 🚂👍
“Yes. I remember Adlestrop—
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.
“The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left & no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop—only the name.” @SwanRailway
Final #BankHolidayMonday tally! 15 hour circular daytrip took: a boat, TWO ferries (one bonus), a bonus taxi, a steam train, a road train, two tube trains, two mainline trains, THREE pubs, (one bonus), three buses, NO rain & we are still speaking. But now, now time for bed.😍🤓
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I have been asked an interesting question. Why does London’s Moorgate tube station have a mix of “traditional” bar-and-Circle roundels... and weird diamonds? Well... (1/6)
The Metropolitan Railway, or “the Met” opened in 1863. It was the world’s first passenger underground railway, and soon it extended beyond Farringdon, thru Moorgate. Other extensions also pressed on, fast. The core route is broadly the Metropolitan line that we have today. (2/6)
The Metropolitan Railway was a trailblazer. It was an innovator, a user of great tech and engineering ideas.
Steam trains underground? The Met.
Cut’n’cover tunnels under roads? The Met.
Smokeless loco experiments? The Met.
Restaurant cars underground? The Met.
(3/6)
Once upon a time (1883, and until 1977!) an incredible pipe network existed below London streets: the London Hydraulic Power Company. It powered incredible things, pushing compressed water from the Thames, into workshops, hotel & flat lifts, cranes & various mechanical things...
The London Hydraulic Company's water pressure lifted the curtains @TheatreRoyalDL, rotated stages at @PalladiumLondon, lifted Leicester Square Theatre's organ, the Palm Court orchestra platform and provided @TowerBridge's backup power. An incredible power.
Elsewhere, the Manchester Hydraulic Power Company's water pressure not only powered warehouse cranes - but re-wound Manchester Town Hall's clock and pumped air thru @ManCathedral's organ. There's equipment preserved at @msimanchester too. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mancheste… (ht @EddyRhead)