Brunel's Other BridgeBrunel Swivel Bridge Project Photos March 2014
 Brunel Swivel Bridge getting lifted higher and higher |
Page contents
Work PHASE A Preparation and Basic Conservation by Volunteers
- Cleaning and painting rusty areas
- Unbolt and release the centre pintle casting
- Jack up Bridge a few inches
- Free up north tail wheel
- Release two rotation cables
- Lower bridge onto its pintle and track
- Free the pintle thread, rotate bridge a small amount and return to present position
- Locate and obtain copies of drawings and past reports. Write a conservation plan
- Seek letters of support
Contact Maggie Shapland (Maggie.shapland@gmail.com) if you wish to help.
Details of progress in 2014 and working days.
Saturday 22 March 2014
The bolts and bridge are numbered in a clear tightening sequence, and to make sure the hand made bolts would go back in the correct threaded holes |
Charlies dad looking for numbers and marking them |
Four Students (Thomas Jerry, Rob Johnson, Geoge Stephenson and Mathilde Khadivi) from Bath University Civil Engineering department, and Katherine Scott all the way from Nottingham University Architecture department all came to help as part of their projects on Brunel. |
The students getting hands on experience of a Brunel structure, chiselling and cleaning |
Cleaning the exposed part of the pintle |
10 year old Charlie chiselling. Ideal size for fitting into tight spaces |
How many does it take to jack up a bridge? |
Sunday 23 March 2014
Geoff and Mike discussing jacking the bridge |
Mike pumping iron |
more of pintel exposed. The two Mikes made a tidy job of clearing the area of debris too. |
collar on pintel |
Ring now 8" higher above wheel |
Mike Bone chiselling away the rust flakes |
How on earth did Ian get in here? |
Ian chiselling |
Martyn looking for more numbered bolts |
Oh no! hail when hoping to paint today! |
Mixing paint and getting a breather |
I need 10' arms and ability to do headstands or be as lithe and slim as Ian |
Painted support |
Pintel pit looking messy with weeds, mud and rust flakes |
We lifted another cover and found linkages |
We lifted yet another cover! and found a round well with water the same level as the dock |
We finally found the Coalbrookdale stamps |
Martyn found 4 Coalbrookdale stamps in the end, two upside down and marked them since it took ages to find them and they are a very important feature |
Should have taken up Geoff's offer of food, a rotweiler stole my pack of 6 hot cross buns! |
Mike positioning some boards to protect the centre supports from getting wet |