Lighthouse Tech

Lighthouse Tech

All of these pictures were taken at the Key West Lighthouse, a very well put together museum with a lighthouse that retains its original lens, as well as some remarkable exhibits in the keeper's house and the entrance building.

A link to the museum:

https://www.kwahs.org/key-west-lighthouse-keepers-quarters/

The pictures listed in the order they appear: 1. Key West Lighthouse; 2. The lighthouse's third order Fresnel lens; 3. Key West's colored sector glass pane; 4. A fifth order lens; 5. The twelve foot high, first order lens from Sombrero Key Lighthouse; 6. A fourth order lens; 7. A diagram showing some interesting information on lens sizes, the arrangement of the sections, and how far they could be seen.

Lighthouses are another interest of mine. I adore these things, and the remarkable engineering that went into them. If any building deserves to be described as a work of art, it's a lighthouse.

The Fresnel (pronounced Frey-nel) lenses are the ultimate blend of art, science, and engineering. They refract light over incredible distances from a comparatively small light source, and they are immeasurably beautiful, in my eyes. They are extremely intricate and very well put together, and if it weren't for the unstoppable march of "progress" and the extreme shortsightedness that seems to come with it, they would last a thousand years.

They come in many different shapes and sizes. Each was unique, as each one needed to fit the specific needs of the area. That, and they were all handmade. The different sizes were known as orders. First orders are on the upper end of the size spectrum, while sixth orders are on the lower end.

Some lighthouses received colored sections so that they could be identified from a distance, or to warn of obstructions. Many of these used sector glass panes in front of the lens, while on some, such as the Umpqua River Lighthouse, the lens itself was colored.

Lens rotation was accomplished via a clockwork mechanism. Some lenses rode on wheeled carriages, but these were not suitable for first order lenses. They were simply too heavy, there was too much friction, and the clockwork could not make them turn fast enough. So, the solution was to find a material for the lens to ride on that would be nearly frictionless. The solution they came up with was to fill a huge basin with mercury and place the lens and carriage on top of it. Mercury is very dense, so the lens actually floats on the surface of the mercury. It is so smooth that a person can rotate a three ton lens with their finger.

I might post some more photos from my trip to Key West. Stay tuned

Further Adventures at Bluebell

The front half of the shed at Sheffield park was cleared out and turned into a bar for this event, so I didn’t get to see quite all of the engines. However, there were still a few in the back half, the main, sort of, museum bit of the shed.

Obviously Stepney and Captain Baxter were in there, as were the Wainwright C Class, the standard 4 75027, and a cute little LMS 0-6-0 that I didn’t photograph.

Frend

He's frend shaped

This week's locomotive of the week is GNR No.990 "Henry Oakley". 990 was built in 1898 at Doncaster works and became the first 4-4-2 Atlantic type locomotive in the United Kingdom and carried the name of the railway's general manager. It was fitted with modified frames in 1919 and a superheater and piston valves in 1923. The engine was withdrawn in 1937 and placed in the LNER's railway museum at York. It was returned to service for short bursts in 1953, 1975 and 1977, though now resides at the National Railway Museum as object number 1975-7001.

Fort Taylor, Key West

This was another place I visited while in Key West with my family. It was a magnificent old fort. Much of it was buried over the years thanks to various expansion projects, and several old cannons were used as rebar!

But, much of it has been dug out and sympathetically restored, revealing the beautiful brickwork and former gun ports. As you can see, they've got several of the old cannons and guns on display!

The fort was in use from the mid-19th century, right up until after WWII. Now that's some history for you!

Monsieur Estrade lives in my walls

Who's Estrade? I'm glad you asked! He was an engineer in the late 19th century who came up with and successfully built a concept for an 0-6-0 with 8 foot high driving wheels. At the time it was built, it was very brave and controversial, but it had several advantages. For one thing, all of its weight was on the driving wheels, and this would have allowed it to pull heavier trains at the same pace as Cramptons and other singles which were popular in those days. Unfortunately, the boiler was, according to one report, too small to keep up with demand, a consequence of the boiler being sandwiched between the driving wheels.

Anyway, besides drawing existing locomotives and engines, I like to make speculative ones of my own. Keep in mind, everything I do is based on existing practice.

So, what have I drawn here? Well, it is, for all intent's and purposes, a copy of Mr. Estrade's high speed locomotive, but with a twist. This machine runs on 7 foot gauge track, which allows the boiler to be larger, thus fixing any steaming troubles the real engine had.

I have made a TON of 7 foot gauge locomotives over the past year, and I've been slowly building a universe for them to live in. It's a huge passion project of mine, so I'm excited to start sharing it with the public.