- Joined
- Apr 20, 2008
- Messages
- 131
- Reaction score
- 3
Tecnically the 3rd visit, but defanatly the most successful, first visit back in november it was dark and -3 and not lit up, didn't enjoy it much.
This time was great! Visited with Well Wasp + UrbanFox.
it wasn't -3 but a lush 12-14degreesC, the loverly sodium lighting was on, and lighting up the bridge beautifully!
In total we spent about 3hrs on and around the bridge crawling on every inch of it, traversing every ladder and walkway in sight, wellwasp + urbanfox climbing the stuff inbetween the ladders aswell, just because its there
Opened to traffic on 28 February 1934 by the Duke of York, the Tees Newport Bridge spans the River Tees a short distance upriver from Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge, linking Middlesbrough with the borough of Stockton-on-Tees, England. Designed by Mott, Hay and Anderson [1] and built by local company Dorman Long, who have also been responsible for such structures as the Tyne Bridge and Sydney Harbour Bridge, it was the first large vertical lift bridge in Britain.[2]
Constructed around twin 182ft (55m) lifting towers, the 270ft (82m) bridge span, weighing 2,700 tonnes, could be lifted by the use of two 325 H.P. electric motors at 52ft per minute to a maximum height of 120ft (37m). In the event of motor failure a standby 450 H.P. petrol engine could be employed to move the bridge, but should both systems fail it was possible to raise or lower the span manually using a winch mechanism. It was estimated in 1963 by Mr R. Batty, long time Bridge Master at Newport Bridge, that "it would take 12 men eight hours" to complete the movement by hand.
It was finally bolted + welded into its lowered position in 1990, and repainted in the std flat green colour that every other major bridge in the NE is painted
the approach
side profile (stitched, hence larger file)
urbanfox climbs the smaller bridge, just because
I know I'm posting lots of internals, but it took 40mins + to stitch this one pic together, so its getting seen!!!!
ah, on board, and now having to make breaks for it to climb steps + ladders between the VERY frequent police car pass's! after all this is 'boro where there are more police than there are actual people LOL
looking up the ladderways! We took the easier more pedestrian route of ~8 vert ladders, as appose to what the workers would have originally climbed (dozens of times a day likely) which is a SINGLE ladder the entire height of the bridge, with no stops, and working from a leisurely 55/60degree angle upto a sheer 90
one of my fav pictures in a while! took a few goes to get this as the trucks rumble over the bridge the entire structure wobbles and vibrates quite violently in places. Some places you don't feel it, other places the ladderways and gantries will shake and vibrate violently enough for you to want to have to hold onto something LOL.
went right to the top first then worked down thru the tiers, apologies in advance to the resize police
not sure which one I like more
urbanfox has her donut and eats it (very slowly LOL)
I survey some awesome views, albeit holding onto something, I really don't like the rusty rotton sheet metal floor, and well wasp concurs, some of it isn't quite as solid as it should be !!!!
me checking out 'boro, from a safe distance and height, although I still like to hold onto something!
from this you should be able to see how the structure works, with (sry edit) FOUR massive counterweights (bigger than any truck) attached via as many as 8 pulleys per tower and gawd knows how many cables to the span, which would have run up and down the tower on guiderails. Amazing really (reading th blurb) that any man (no matter how long it took) would have ever been able to crank it! a testiment to pre-war engineering!
bit more distortion
well I had to do a daft pose at some point, I mean what use is an explore without one LOL
and finally, the ladder looking back down! notice the road on the far right of frame, there was mist billowing between the top and the bottom, adding to the height, illuding it to be much higher than it actually was.
This time was great! Visited with Well Wasp + UrbanFox.
it wasn't -3 but a lush 12-14degreesC, the loverly sodium lighting was on, and lighting up the bridge beautifully!
In total we spent about 3hrs on and around the bridge crawling on every inch of it, traversing every ladder and walkway in sight, wellwasp + urbanfox climbing the stuff inbetween the ladders aswell, just because its there
Opened to traffic on 28 February 1934 by the Duke of York, the Tees Newport Bridge spans the River Tees a short distance upriver from Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge, linking Middlesbrough with the borough of Stockton-on-Tees, England. Designed by Mott, Hay and Anderson [1] and built by local company Dorman Long, who have also been responsible for such structures as the Tyne Bridge and Sydney Harbour Bridge, it was the first large vertical lift bridge in Britain.[2]
Constructed around twin 182ft (55m) lifting towers, the 270ft (82m) bridge span, weighing 2,700 tonnes, could be lifted by the use of two 325 H.P. electric motors at 52ft per minute to a maximum height of 120ft (37m). In the event of motor failure a standby 450 H.P. petrol engine could be employed to move the bridge, but should both systems fail it was possible to raise or lower the span manually using a winch mechanism. It was estimated in 1963 by Mr R. Batty, long time Bridge Master at Newport Bridge, that "it would take 12 men eight hours" to complete the movement by hand.
It was finally bolted + welded into its lowered position in 1990, and repainted in the std flat green colour that every other major bridge in the NE is painted
the approach
side profile (stitched, hence larger file)
urbanfox climbs the smaller bridge, just because
I know I'm posting lots of internals, but it took 40mins + to stitch this one pic together, so its getting seen!!!!
ah, on board, and now having to make breaks for it to climb steps + ladders between the VERY frequent police car pass's! after all this is 'boro where there are more police than there are actual people LOL
looking up the ladderways! We took the easier more pedestrian route of ~8 vert ladders, as appose to what the workers would have originally climbed (dozens of times a day likely) which is a SINGLE ladder the entire height of the bridge, with no stops, and working from a leisurely 55/60degree angle upto a sheer 90
one of my fav pictures in a while! took a few goes to get this as the trucks rumble over the bridge the entire structure wobbles and vibrates quite violently in places. Some places you don't feel it, other places the ladderways and gantries will shake and vibrate violently enough for you to want to have to hold onto something LOL.
went right to the top first then worked down thru the tiers, apologies in advance to the resize police
not sure which one I like more
urbanfox has her donut and eats it (very slowly LOL)
I survey some awesome views, albeit holding onto something, I really don't like the rusty rotton sheet metal floor, and well wasp concurs, some of it isn't quite as solid as it should be !!!!
me checking out 'boro, from a safe distance and height, although I still like to hold onto something!
from this you should be able to see how the structure works, with (sry edit) FOUR massive counterweights (bigger than any truck) attached via as many as 8 pulleys per tower and gawd knows how many cables to the span, which would have run up and down the tower on guiderails. Amazing really (reading th blurb) that any man (no matter how long it took) would have ever been able to crank it! a testiment to pre-war engineering!
bit more distortion
well I had to do a daft pose at some point, I mean what use is an explore without one LOL
and finally, the ladder looking back down! notice the road on the far right of frame, there was mist billowing between the top and the bottom, adding to the height, illuding it to be much higher than it actually was.
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