tarboat's photos

Deep coal mining ends in Britain tomorrow when Kellingley Colliery closes. I find it hard to grasp the enormity of this event and certainly never expected to see this happen in my lifetime. A deeply sad and depressing moment. A peek at the back entrance to the pit. Kellingley Colliery, setting the standards for safety, but not for signage. :)

Typical disused intermittent kiln at a farmstead on Alston Moor. These kilns were mainly used to burn lime for agricultural improvement and probably only had a short active life.

The World War I Memorial Bridge is a vertical-lift bridge that carries U.S. Route 1 across the Piscataqua River between Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Badger's Island in Kittery, Maine. A large overhead plaque facing traffic on the bridge reads "Memorial to the Sailors and Soldiers of New Hampshire who gave their lives in the World War 1917-1919." The lift span can be fully opened to allow large commercial vessels to pass. During summer, the lift section remains partially elevated every half-hour between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. for about 15 minutes. This allows smaller commercial and recreational boat traffic. The bridge is currently the only one of the three Piscataqua River bridges with provisions for pedestrians and bicycles. This bridge replaced the original structure that was completed in 1923 and closed in 2011. The opening of the new bridge in August 2013 was reported in the local paper thus:- New Hampshire and Maine celebrated the opening of a new bridge Thursday that has become a steel symbol of their past cooperation and their commitment to future commerce. The $81.4 million Memorial Bridge between Portsmouth and Kittery, Maine, replaces one that was built in 1923 and closed in 2011. As she did 90 years ago at age 5, former Portsmouth mayor Eileen Foley did the ribbon-cutting honors, riding across the bridge in a golf cart with a bouquet of flowers on her lap. The crowd cheered as she cut the ribbon, then sang "God Bless America." Only in the USA! :-)

Notice outside the lamp room at Chatterley Whitfield Colliery.

AB 2774 shunts the exchange sidings at the back of the miner's cottages at the Beamish museum.

The opencast coal mine at Pingzhuang was reaching the end of its life when I visited in 2008. The coal was worked from the pit in electrically hauled trains whilst maintenance trains were steam hauled. Coal production in the area continues from deep mines.

The Hesketh shaft at Chatterley Whitfield retains its steam winding engine but the steelwork is in terrible state after years of neglect.

Dogs are not allowed on the furniture at Tarboat Towers, however that doesn't mean that dogs don't get on the furniture when they think nobody is around. The look here says that she has just woken up to the realisation that she is busted. All that is to come is to be unceremoniously put back on the floor. Such a nuisance when she was so comfortable.

SY 0407 stands in front of a huge sooty icicle in the washery at Didao on the Jixi Coal Railway.

The fleamarket at Newcastle-under-Lyme featured a lot of dinosaurs today.

A coke car filled with red hot coke is under the tower and the quenching process has just begun at the Monckton Cokeworks. This view was from the top of the main coal bunker at the end of the ovens.

This kiln at Lindong (Bairin Zuoqi), in the Mongolian Autonomous Region of China, is burning lime for local use in mortar and possibly for agricultural purposes. The three-wheeler in the draw tunnel has replaced wheelbarrows for moving the product.

The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a triangular 22-storey steel-framed building located at 175 Fifth Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, and is considered to be a groundbreaking skyscraper. Upon completion in 1902, it was one of the tallest buildings in the city at 20 floors high, and one of only two skyscrapers north of 14th Street - the other being the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, one block east. The building was designed by Chicago's Daniel Burnham as a vertical Renaissance palazzo with Beaux-Arts styling. The fascia is limestone at the bottom changing to glazed terracotta from the Atlantic Terra Cotta Company in Tottenville, Staten Island as the floors rise.

On a perfect autumn day the "Notch" train from Crawford is arriving at the North Conway base of the Conway Scenic Railroad. This long train was full to capacity with dining passengers who had been admiring the autumn colours in the mountains.

The cheap way to see the Statue of Liberty and the New York Skyline is to take the Staten Island ferry. It's about an hour for the return trip and best of all it's free!

Looking into the cockpit of Vulcan XM602 from the navigation seat. Five men were packed into this area for hours whilst on active service. Only the pilots got ejector seats. This is an exhibit at the new Avro Museum at Woodford which opened last week.

Late afternoon sunshine on a deserted beach at Echo Lake State Park.

The Sarah Mildred Long Bridge is a lift bridge that carries the US 1 Bypass over the Piscataqua River between Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine. The bridge is a double deck truss bridge, with the US 1 Bypass road deck above and a railroad bed below. The bridge features two separate movable spans. While the main lift span and its towers are the obvious primary moving feature, the second moving span is only apparent to water and rail traffic. On the north side of the bridge, the first non-trussed section of rail bed lifts up and moves south as a retractable bridge, coming to rest on top of the rail tracks inside the truss. This creates a waterway large enough for most recreational boats to pass through without the need for interruption of automobile traffic on the bridge. Completed in 1940, the bridge is the second to carry motor vehicle traffic between Maine and New Hampshire at Portsmouth, and replaced a river crossing dating from 1822. A replacement bridge is now being constructed as a joint venture of Hardesty & Hanover and Figg Engineering. It will be higher than the current bridge, allowing for more ship traffic to pass underneath without opening the bridge. It will have 11 fewer piers in the river, as well as an improved collision system in the event of a ship impacting it. The Piscataqua River Bridge in the background carries Interstate 95 and was completed in 1971.