Mystery Tower
-
jim
- Posts: 1898
- Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am
As a postscript to my previous post on the tower it should be noted that on the other bank of the canal some hundred yards further away from the station there was, for many years, a rail siding connection.On the site now occupied by the Green Bank building and it's environs was a wagon-height loading platform, a canal wharf, and the associated siding which ran across Globe Road and into the Monkbridge complex and eventually connected with the Midland Railway Leeds Station avoiding line from the middle of the triangle. Should any water -- rail tranship have been needed, a financial quid pro quo would have been beneficial to both parties and enabled delivery of goods both ways to exactly where required by simple shunting maneouvres, and without the full time staff needed for a mechanical hoist.As a much more fanciful suggestion, it would also have been relatively simple to install an appliance to lift direct from barges in the River Branch Canal at the back of the carriage sidings between Wellington and New! Such devices were used over sub-surface canals at Manchester Central for many years. To conclude, I believe there were other preferable options to a lifting device on the Mystery Tower site, and it's construction does not substantiate the theory.
-
The Parksider
- Posts: 1581
- Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am
jim wrote: As a postscript to my previous post on the tower To conclude, I believe there were other preferable options to a lifting device on the Mystery Tower site, and it's construction does not substantiate the theory. The 1847-63 map shows sidings on the site, and as canals are generally older than railways I suspect any canal infrastructure is as you say unlikely.The only bit I can add, if it hasn't been suggested before is the angle of the boundary at the end of the siding. In 1863 it is more north to south at the end of the lines, by the next godfrey map the boundary is more north west south east and the realignment seems to be to accomodate your structure.So did the railway buy a bit more land to stick another structure at the end of their sidings????Key question - what did railway companies tend to build at the dead end of their sidings!!!!??
-
The Parksider
- Posts: 1581
- Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am
Cardiarms wrote: Some sort of winding gear to pull carriages in and out of the works without the need of an engine? Engine to provide power for the lifting machinery/tools/lathes? Scanning the maps for the other sidings of leeds to see what was at the end of their sidings reveals that some sidings ended with a... "w.m." at the end.So my money's on a "w.m."
-
jim
- Posts: 1898
- Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am
Hi Parksider, I think "w. m." indicates a weighing machine, or weighbridge as they were more usually referred to by railwaymen. They were provided at most goods yards to calculate accurate carriage charges. The double plus machinery cabin at the entrance to Hunslet Lane Goods Yard labeled "w.m." was certainly one of these. All the machines I came across were made and maintained by a firm called Pooley's, and they had to conform accurately to the standards of the Department for Weights and Measures.I don't think they have any relevance here, I'm afraid.Is there anyone out there who wouldn't mind uploading the appropriate section of the picture of the tower, which was published on page 5 of Monday's YEP, and again on Thursday in the Leeds free paper? (The item is headed "Council wants to take slow boat to the future"). I'm afraid my computer skills are so limited that it's a wonder (or perhaps a shame!) that I ever found my way to this site in the first place.
-
Cardiarms
- Posts: 2993
- Joined: Tue 21 Oct, 2008 8:30 am