Railways

[Nemesis]

Here's the text:

Historic losses

Sir, Prof James Stevens Curl (letter, March 3rd) is right to condemn the potential loss of the historic Culross and Stanley buildings at King's Cross. The reasosn given for the demolition of the buildings are to make way for a road (in the case of the Satnley building) and for a pedestrian 'desire line' in the case of Culross - neither of which is essential.

Argent may almost have its permission to demolish the building (aside from the small matter of the continuing judicial review of the planning application decision) but it is not too late for a change of heart - these beuildings can, and indeed must, be retained and reused to creat a development that belongs to King's Cross, not Shanghai.

ADAM WILKINSON

SAVE Britain's Heritage.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/debate/letters/article1475083.ece

 

[Nemesis]

Culross building, s side:

(Pics by Adam Wilkinson SAVE)

 

[Nemesis]

Stanley:

(Pics - AW SAVE)

 

[Nemesis]

Huge colour centre spread in today's Guardian - the Barlow trainshed at St Pancras, looking magnificent!

Can't wait to see it in the metal!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2016230,00.html

 

[chuckey]

Say Guys, I was looking at the photograph of the roof ribs of St P. Trying to reconcile it with a more (and later?) conventional roof structure. What caused me to blink was that lowest beam had its big dimension side to side, not up and down ( to suport a vertical load). The pillars also seem have a pretty weedy bracket for holding them. My thoughts are that the ribs are actually supported on a beam, just out of view above the pillar(?), the designer then realised that the weight of the roof had a big turning motion on the ribs, so he then re-inforced the bottom of the ribs and tied them all togather with this extra beam to resist the sideways force at their ends. It would be intersting to see if these beams are actually straight between the pillars, i.e. were they necessary at all?
Would they have built a scale model of it and loaded it to destruction to test their design? or just over proportioned every thing?
Frank

 

[Nemesis]

Not a clue I'm afraid! You need an engineer.

There's a good book though... may help. St Pancras Station by Simon Bradley.

Another by Jack Simmons and Robert Thorne (ed).

I suspect no scale model - just over engineered.


Found this about the restoration:

http://www.brickcutters.com/st_pancras_station.php

And this has a piece (last item):

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/upload/pdf/shared_interest_p3.pdf

For more pics of the railwaylands, gasholders, threatened buildings etc:

http://www.angelainglis.org/kx_intro.htm


'But the most visible prize of Britain's largest civil engineering project in a decade is St Pancras station, the north London terminal of the tunnel link. When the high speed trains start whistling though south east England at 300kph (185mph) next October and the old station is fully revealed, it's fair to forecast that the great iron and glass shed completed by Victorian civil engineer William Henry Barlow in 1868 will be elevated to the same rank as anything built by Brunel or Stephenson - a wonder of Victorian skill, elegance and imagination.'

http://money.guardian.co.uk/workweekly/story/0,,1889189,00.html

 

[caliwag]

I surveyed the rib bases ten years ago when we started the rebuild. The ribs are bolted to ironwork spreader beams twenty feet above street level (at track bed level) which are in turn bolted via long tie rods, into very substantial buttressed brick piers which in turn are onto foundations about another twenty feet below street level.
However the spreader ironwork is all tied together via the grid of iron beams (on over 600 CI columns at 4472mm centres in the barrel store) which support the track and platforms. (now the continental departure check-in etc) Three slots have now been cut through that cross-tie system, including the removal of a number of columns (some reused to replace bomb damaged ones).
You will be able to see tha buttressing in the first class lounge on the east side buildings when it opens...can't remember if any of the substantial nuts atop the holding down bolts will still be visible.
The ribs were put up before any of the above platform brickwork was carried out and as they rise from Euston road at approx 1 in 336 gradient (surely a mistake) and are vertical (obviously) the bricklayers just had to lay their bricks at that gradient. If you look closely at a rib relationship with the pier, the pier is not vertical, the rib is. The best book, at the moment, is the Jack Symmonds one called St Pancras station. It has been reprinted and updated but you can get originals for about £30-£40 via ABE books on line.

Caliwag

 

[Nemesis]

The reprint (Jack Simmons edited and with a new chapter by Robert Thorne of Baxter Associates?) is available at a much cheaper rate from Amazon.

Several 1968 versions available at reasonable prices from ABE.

 

[Nemesis]

Stephen Bayley in today's Observer Review:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2036347,00.html

Scroll to bottom and there are pics and audio stuff:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/flash/page/0,,2036481,00.html

 

[Moneypit]

referring back to a thread from some time ago about the restoration/renovation of the St Pancras roof.

........But the finest drawings were every conceivable detail, casting and junction for Barlow's roof ironwork...all erected in about a year. Incidentally the moving centring/ cradle was subseuqently sawn up to provide the platforms...
Caliwag

it sad to see that the manufacturers of that roof structure have now gone into administration and will disappear. Butterley Engineering in Derbyshire who were established in 1790 and more recently built the spectacular Falkirk Wheel are now no more.

http://www.thisisbusiness-eastmidla...-as-historic-engineering-firm--brings-in.aspx

The article tends to blame the economic downturn but it is more likely due to the desire to turn the land on which the works stand into a housing estate. There are apparently family connections between the company closing and the developers waiting in the wings!

 

[caliwag]

Jeez...that is so sad. Maybe inevitable, the way things are going. Their drawings for the original work were so valuable to us...not to say how beautiful they were. Do you know there were all those train-shed engineering drawings and not a thing, other than the odd Scott sketch, (found in Kew) for the station...we had to measure the lot.
Not a great problem mind!!

 

[wobs]

A site my partner forwarded to me:
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/

Does exactly what it says on the tin.