u/Frangifer

... which used to be a swing-bridge

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https://salfordhistory.blogspot.com/2019/01/trafford-road-swing-bridge-encomium.html?m=1

&

https://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/outside/traffordbridge.html

&

https://www.facebook.com/groups/thisisoldtrafford/posts/10164398750588966/

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before the uppermost reaches of the Manchester Ship Canal were finally completely forsaken by ships of any substantial size back in 1998.

I've

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posted this bridge here before ...

https://www.reddit.com/r/bridgeporn/s/b4OVQz2wR0

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... but

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these photographs

https://www.reddit.com/u/Frangifer/s/qcMNN0AcCQ

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are from a different angle - ie viewed from the innately fixed additional road bridge that was built alongside it concomitantly with its ceasing to be a swing-bridge.

... viewed from the bridge carrying Sir Matt Busby Way across the tracks, changing from the regular (left-hand) track to the opposite one just prior to the turnout into the marshalling-yard. At the corner of the bridge the view is from the parapet is somewhat lower than it's the wont of the parapets of road-bridges over railways to be.

Notice she's operating in diesel mode: I presume the reason is the difficulty there would be, in electric mode, with the pantograph having to disengage with one catenary & reëngage with the next. Considering the length of the train, & that (so I gather) the power of class 88 in diesel mode is only ~700㎾, she seems to be doing very well: the engine doesn't sound like it's labouring, particularly.

The reason I say “… seem to be back …” is that a little while ago I spotted the train being drawn by a class 66

https://www.reddit.com/r/trains/s/ICTFeN3q9m

, whereas I'd always thitherto seen it drawn by a class 88. I've no idea @all why there was that change on that occasion.

... which, incidentally, allows us to be clear about which way the blades rotate – whether it's forward @ the centreline or rearward there ... & evidently it's the former – ie forward @ the centreline.

 

From

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This Facebook post

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story\_fbid=10162702526975112&id=10162702527060112 .

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Forgot to put the attribution in, @first! 🙄 ... which is why I deleted this & posted it again ... although probably very few folk noticed that.

It's actually very generous of the goodly author of that Facebook post to allow downloading of the video so easily.

My spotting of it is lodged @

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this recent post of mine:

https://www.reddit.com/r/trains/s/a4wclkaVn7 .

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In the Wikipedia article

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Wikipedia — British Rail Class 66

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British\_Rail\_Class\_66

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, under the heading

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Accidents and incidents

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, it says the following.

❝

On 1 August 2015, 66428 was hauling an engineering train that ran into the rear of another engineering train at Logan, Ayrshire. It was severely damaged.[48] The train that was run into was hauled by 66305.[49]

❞

The reference marked "[48]" is to the wwwebpage

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Rail Accident Investigation Branch — Collision near Logan: Investigation into a collision between freight trains in a work site near Logan, East Ayrshire, 1 August 2015.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/collision-at-logan

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, & the one marked "[49]", being that from which the frontispiece images are lifted, is

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Rail Accident Investigation Branch — Freight Train Collision near Logan, East Ayrshire 1 August 2015

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment\_data/file/637987/R132016\_160713\_Logan.pdf

(¡¡ may download without prompting – PDF document – 7‧74㎆ !!)

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... by which I mean an organ consisting of an array of kettle-whistles of different sizes; & a kettle-whistle consisting of a pair of closely separated parallel discs with a concentric hole through both of them: the tone generated by such an arrangement is 'a thing' in physics & is known as a 'hole-tone' ᐜ (obviously not to be confused with 'whole tone'! ... 😄 haha).

I would imagine that there are instances of such organs somewhere: such an organ would be relatively compact & cheap to construct; & it could even be powered by steam, as a literal kettle-whistle on a literal kettle is ... although the quality & stability of the tones might leave a lot to be desired. But as for that quality & stability: because the tone-generating element (just two parallel discs with a concentric hole through both) is so simple & relatively easy to fabricate it would be correspondingly easy to evolve & incrementally refine the instrument empirically by replacement of tone-generating elements according as the tone from some particular element be satisfactory or not.

ᐜ (... see

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University of Cambridge — How the kettle got its whistle

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/how-the-kettle-got-its-whistle

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&

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The aeroacoustics of a steam kettle

October 2013

by

Anurag Agarwal & Ross Henrywood

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259333660\_The\_aeroacoustics\_of\_a\_steam\_kettle

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)

... (as I recently said I might) & what should I find there but my old friend 66-590 drawing the trash train!

https://www.reddit.com/r/trains/s/osoAsoqe7q

😆🤣 ... even though its a completely different line.

It's going ᐞa lotᐞ faster on this occasion, though: that must be close to the class 66 's maximum speed of 75mph.

(the video commences part-way through the bend preceeding it, which isn't quite as tight): ie the one @ the front of the rather difficult-to-find-out-aboutᐜ Claytonbrook Police Station, where, so 'tis said, training for superheavy Police intervention - eg riot control, operations entailing bearing of firearms, interdiction of armed gangs, etc - takes place.

ᐜ ... ᐞprettymuch impossibleᐞ to find-out about, rather!

🤫🤐😶

😆🤣

From what I can gather by a bit of looking-up online the tightest bends on the Metrolink are of radius 25m, which is very close to 1¼chain. What I know for certain is that each tight bend has a speed-limit, & that they range down to 5mph: the one shown here is a 5mph one ... & the inside of it, @that.

And there's a vigorous discussion of the ride-quality of the Metrolink @

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https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/manchester-metrolink-ride-quality.146516/

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, some of which discussion is about the diabolical grinding around such bends ... although most of it seems to be about the hunting oscillation that tends to set-in towards the vehicles' maximum speed of 50mph ... which I can personally testify ᐞdoes indeedᐞ tend to set-in.

From

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Manchester Evening News — Dominic Moffitt — Inside abandoned, rotting police station left to rack and ruin for over a decade

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/nostalgia/inside-abandoned-rotting-police-station-22110210

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⚫

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All Eleven Photographs

https://www.reddit.com/u/Frangifer/s/luNhmmZGWZ

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ᐜ It @least hasn't had any renovation done on it for a considerable length of time, now. I'd hope that it doesn't remain ᐞpermanentlyᐞ abandoned: 'twould be really quite appallingly calumniferous & obloquiferous a waste for it thus to remain.

... with possibly some indication as to what was a-brenning in that fire, which, on a gloriously fine & clear Spring day, was the root of a column of dense smoke visible from very considerable distance away & witnessed by many: as, indeed, was evinced by the posts @ the Reddit channel

r/Manchester

on that day.

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https://www.matweb.com/search/datasheettext.aspx?matguid=2f70c038495f4e34b239882501d7918e

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https://www.bocsci.com/ultramoll-iii-cas-24937-93-7-item-280045.html?srsltid=AfmBOopQaSJ8ZLwGygNRDeM2KgP-abgHvXjXN1YVDusipIpIC-AN-jEl

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I wot not whether there was aught more dangerous than that brenning in that ghastly conflagration. If anyone has comprehensive & accurate information as to the matter, it would be most-appreciated. Maybe it was a load of Ultramoll III only; maybe there was other stuff brenning 🤔 ... who knows!?

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I gather there were no fatalities or injuries in the fire.

See

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this Manchester Evening News viddley-diddley montage

https://youtu.be/K40aD47fRLo

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about the incident. It looks like the premises was just a storage facility: I don't make-out any trace of actual manufacturing @ the site ... but if anyone wishes to put-in reliably avering to the contrary, then that would be much-appreciated.

ᐜ ... ie just slightly upstream of the junction of that thoroughly dorbs little 'river' with the River Irwell (itself shortly, with proceeding downstream, to become the Manchester Ship Canal) - the chief river through Manchestire – Hengley-Launde.

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All Three Photographs - the Thriddie of Them Being the One Shown Here

https://www.reddit.com/u/Frangifer/s/qI4dpUCzeH

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ᐝ It's actually very stoutly fenced-off ... but with either poking my camera through the fence or using a bit of magnification, or both, the fence is not visible in these photographs ... except for a little bit @ the right-hand edge of the frame, on the opposite side of the water, in the photograph shown here.

ᐜ (there are other brands of gargantuan-scale retailstry available)

... observed from Cornbrook Tram Station – Cornbrook – Manchester – England. I don't know why a class 66 is being used, rather than the Class 88 that's been used for considerable time hitherto, for drawing that freight.

The locomotive is nempt after a mental health charity based in Carlisle – Cumbria – Hengley-Launde.

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Youtube Viddley-Diddley Thereof

https://youtu.be/LFDPqXlGxGE

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⚫

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Youtube Viddley-Diddley Thereof (Live Version)

https://youtu.be/Yrsy4Rwo0C8

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⚫

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All the Photographs (of Which the Last is the One Shown Here)

https://www.reddit.com/u/Frangifer/s/OBTjtAfkvc

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I was hoping to catch it proceeding in the opposite direction, this time ... but one day, hopefully, I shall.

I've explained its use of the right-hand track before ... but for anyone unacquainted with the explanation: @ Timperley there's a bottleneck lasting for about a mile: the full-on trains have effectively a single-track railway for about a mile; & the Metrolink trams have ᐞthe otherᐞ track, running parallel to it, as ᐞtheirᐞ single-track railway ... & @ each end of the stretch there's a level-crossing ᐜ . Wherefore the track is thus straitened, there, I wot not.

ᐜ ... which are rare in Britain: I'm familiar with only one other (the one @ Clayton Bridge) in the Manchester area, although according to

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/who-we-are/safety-in-the-community/level-crossing-safety/active-level-crossings/

there's another couple, depending on exactly how the boundary of 'Manchester' be defined.

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I won't ᐞkeepᐞ posting that view: until I catch it going t'other way I won't show it again. But this time I kept the camera on the locomotive until it disappeared around the bend ... which I regret not doing last time. I'll give that one @ Clayton Bridge a try: there's a good view, there, & I know feight trains do pass that way.