What is the oldest object or construction in the world...
 

On Wed, 3 Nov 2004, Mark Brader wrote:

I believe that includes the only ever railway swing bridge.

Nope. The Oxford Companion to British Railway History says:

# Opening bridges were built across some navigable waterways,
# allowing shipping to pass. They were usually swing bridges,
# like

Like the bridge over Alresford Creek, on the Brightlingsea to Wivenhoe
railway, a mile or two from where i grew up. It was demolished long before
i was born, but i remember being told about it.

tom

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What is the oldest object or construction in the world...
 

"R.C. Payne" wrote in message
...

If you allow reused infrastructure from older transport forms
incorporated into new ones, then the Higham and Strood tunnels must
count, as they were dug for the Thames & Medway canal in 17xx.

1819-24
Peter

What is the oldest object or construction in the world...
 

"Peter Masson" wrote in message
...

......and across an Oxford Canal branch on
the entrance to Oxford Rewley Road (LMS) station.

Peter

The swing bridge deck was still there in June this year, alongside the
'Sheepwash Channel', stuck in the open position and hemmed in on all sides
by new building work.

Paul

What is the oldest object or construction in the world...
 

In article , Mark Brader
writes
I believe that includes the only ever railway swing bridge.
Nope.

Indeed, far far far from "only".

The Oxford Companion to British Railway History says:

# Opening bridges were built across some navigable waterways,
# allowing shipping to pass. They were usually swing bridges,
# like Thowse Bridge, Norwich (one of the earliest),

Trowse (note spelling) is still in use, and has a 25kV overhead power
rail.

Selby over
# the Yorkshire Ouse,

That's still there as well, though it's no longer on the ECML. At one
time the tracks had four rails each, so that the point blades could be
on the same side of the bridge as the rest of the interlocking, even
though the divergence was on the other side.

[There have been swing bridges where the signal wire "pull" actually got
transmitted across the bridge to a signal on the far side. A neat
mechanical solution.]

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What is the oldest object or construction in the world...
 

"Henry" wrote in message
...
"Peter Heather" wrote

Also, there are two very obvious remanants of the Croydon Canal in the
form of the original reservoir (now South Norwood Lake) and the length
of canal now preserved in a park just off Anerley Hill (I think that's
its name)


There is a bridge parapet in Croydon which I recollect is reckoned to date
back to the canal. It is over the W. Croydon rail line and is in either
Sydenham Road or Gloucester Road, I can't remember which.

There is a notch on the south side of Greenland Dock which seems to line
up with the point where the canal came in. You can see it on the Multimap
aerial photo.

I believe also that the loop of road from Regina Road to Albert Road in S.
Norwood follows the line of a meander which formed after the canal was
closed. Not sure in what manner the closed canal was flowing to form a
meander though!

I am going from memory of having read a book on the subject, but that was
quite a while ago.


Having rechecked my source, the parapet is in Gloucester Road and the idea
of the meander was complete imagination on my part, the loop of roads
roughly follows the line of the canal itself.

What is the oldest object or construction in the world...
 

Peter Masson wrote:
"R.C. Payne" wrote in message
...

If you allow reused infrastructure from older transport forms
incorporated into new ones, then the Higham and Strood tunnels must
count, as they were dug for the Thames & Medway canal in 17xx.


1819-24
Peter

Are they really that new? I had always assumed they were older than
that, but a quick google confirms these dates.

Robin

What is the oldest object or construction in the world...
 

--- Matthew Church said:

Quite a nice link for the SIR:

"In 1803, the Surrey Iron Railway was opened in Mitcham. It was the
first public railway to be sanctioned by Parliament and made Mitcham
the first place in the world to be served by a public railway. It used
horse drawn wagons to carry coal from the Thames at Wandsworth as far
as Croydon. On the way back from Croydon to Wandsworth, these wagons
carried flour, copper, paper and the town's most famous product -
Mitcham Lavender. The Georgian station at Mitcham is still in use, and
is one of the oldest railway stations in the world."

http://tinyurl.com/3rgo4

If this is the answer to the original posted question, I am not sure
it is correct. The building was built as a house and only adapted as a
station in the 1850's when the SIR was replaced by the 'conventional'
railway. There is no evidence that I know of to suggest it was
anything other than a private house when the SIR was built. The SIR
didn't have stations in the accepted sense as it served various
wharves and sidings etc for goods only. There was a loop and sidings
for a coal merchant here but it was on the south side of the line and
not where the station building is. The web site quoted is a bit
misleading here. Also, Mitcham was hardly the first place to be served
by a public railway. It was simply near the route of the line that
went to Croydon (much more important) and intended to go on to
Portsmouth.

Peter Heather

What is the oldest object or construction in the world...
 

(Peter Heather) wrote in message . com...
--- Matthew Church said:

Quite a nice link for the SIR:

"In 1803, the Surrey Iron Railway was opened in Mitcham. It was the
first public railway to be sanctioned by Parliament and made Mitcham
the first place in the world to be served by a public railway. It used
horse drawn wagons to carry coal from the Thames at Wandsworth as far
as Croydon. On the way back from Croydon to Wandsworth, these wagons
carried flour, copper, paper and the town's most famous product -
Mitcham Lavender. The Georgian station at Mitcham is still in use, and
is one of the oldest railway stations in the world."

http://tinyurl.com/3rgo4

If this is the answer to the original posted question, I am not sure
it is correct. The building was built as a house and only adapted as a
station in the 1850's when the SIR was replaced by the 'conventional'
railway. There is no evidence that I know of to suggest it was
anything other than a private house when the SIR was built. The SIR
didn't have stations in the accepted sense as it served various
wharves and sidings etc for goods only. There was a loop and sidings
for a coal merchant here but it was on the south side of the line and
not where the station building is. The web site quoted is a bit
misleading here. Also, Mitcham was hardly the first place to be served
by a public railway. It was simply near the route of the line that
went to Croydon (much more important) and intended to go on to
Portsmouth.

Peter Heather

The original question envisaged the Happy Eater bridge as being the
correct answer. They are quibbling by saying, "Okay it's a bridge but
it's no longer a bridge over a railway".

What is the oldest object or construction in the world...
 

What is the oldest object or construction in the world...
 

On 3 Nov 2004 06:44:34 -0800, (Peter
Heather) wrote:

Also, there are two very obvious remanants of the Croydon Canal in the
form of the original reservoir (now South Norwood Lake) and the length
of canal now preserved in a park just off Anerley Hill (I think that's
its name)


The park is called Betts Park.

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