Now This Is Just Plain Cute, Ain't It?

Now this is just plain cute, ain't it?

Gravity Fowls ,,,,,

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 The engine was withdrawn in 1937 and placed in the LNER's railway museum at York.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.

Chestnut Hill Waterworks, Boston

Besides working on big engines on occasion (well, once) I also draw them.

Those who are unfamiliar with waterworks steam engines may watch the videos and look at the photographs I've posted of the Woburn engine and say, "That's a big engine!" And you're right, she is a big engine, in comparison to us people! Really, she is only about four stories high from the bottom of the pumps to the steam cylinders

Four stories? That's, quite literally, as high as a building! That's not small at all! Well, when you take a look at other engines in big waterworks in big cities, she is VERY small! The engines in Buffalo, New York, if memory serves, are about eight stories, and the engines in Cincinnati are eleven stories, or 104 feet in height! Those, the Cincinnati engines, are the largest in the world, and their building is now a museum, as well as a functioning waterworks.

THIS engine, which I have drawn, is housed at the former Chestnut Hill Waterworks, now the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum, in Boston, a short distance from Woburn.

Now, you may recall, if you have been here before, that I said Woburn is entirely unique, and here I am now, listing off museums where you can go and see other big waterworks engines. Well, the thing about these museums is that the engines are cold and unmoving. They are in good condition, though, and could very easily run again, given just a few months of work (that is not at all an exaggeration, by the way, Woburn was returned to steam, from derelict condition, in about... half a year if memory serves). Ah well, it's one of those things. At least they're still here!

The Engine of Woburn Waterworks

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Woburn Municipal Waterworks Museum | Woburn MA

Woburn Municipal Waterworks Museum, Woburn, Massachusetts. 1,806 likes · 1 talking about this · 24 were here. To preserve and operate the 19

She was built and installed in 1908. The engine pumped water to the city of Woburn until 1932 when it was laid up in favor of a series of small electric pumps located around Horn Pond. At some point, the engine was named Louise by the chief engineer. During World War II, the chief and all the waterworks staff turned the engine into a very closely guarded secret so as to save it from the scrap drives.

It sat dormant until 2018 when it was restored and steamed, and it steamed again in 2023 for three weekends in May. The site is an active waterworks to this day, but this part has been turned into a museum.

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

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!