The Anonymous Widower

Even Brunel’s Railway Couldn’t Cope

The Exeter to Plymouth line is one of the UK’s  most spectacular railway lines.  Or should it be was, as eighty metres of it have been washed away at Dawlish?

This report in the Exeter Express and Echo has some amazing pictures.

Brunel generally got his engineering right and seeing that the line opened in the 1840s and I can’t see any reference to a breakage of this nature before he didn’t do too bad.

But it does show how fierce the seas must have been!

Let’s hope that Network Rail had a plan ready for an emergency, such as happened last night.

February 5, 2014 Posted by | Energy, Transport/Travel | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What Would Brunel Have Thought?

It is being reported that the bridge at Dawlish station is being replaced by a new copy in plastic, because the steel work has corroded. You can get a measure of the conditions from this picture taken on the line through the station.

The South Devon Railway, on which Dawlish station is situated was built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

So what would he have thought about the use of plastic?

Brunel was an innovative user of the materials he had available and I believe he very much used the best material he had at his disposal for a particular job. His prefabricated timber bridges could best be described as masterpieces.

So I suspect that his ghost is right behind Network Rail’s decision.

September 30, 2012 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , , | Leave a comment

Totnes Declares Itself A Coffee Chain-Free Town

I like this article on the BBC web site about how Totnes is trying to keep the coffee chains out of the town.

Perhaps, it’s because, my maternal grandmother, who was born just round the corner from where I live now, had Devonian ancestry and that’s where I get my stubbornness from.

August 7, 2012 Posted by | Food, World | , | Leave a comment

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