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Other Brunel's Swing Bridge Pages

As well as an introductory page, the other Brunel's Swing Bridge pages cover: events at the bridge, including the dates of work parties; reports of work parties in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022; photos of work parties in 2020, 2021, and 2022; information on the 170th Anniversary events; and copies of the display boards.

Brunel's Swing Bridge Project News - 2019

September

The last scheduled work party of the year was on 21 September, when the bridge was rotated a small distance. This provided the information needed to design the drive equipment for a full swing of the bridge. More information can be found in the accompanying news release.

The bridge was open on Saturday 14 September as part of the 2019 Heritage Open Days, when there were about 220 visitors.

August 2019

This was the last work party before the conference in the Create Centre on 06 September, and the 170th Birthday Celebrations and Open Days on the following two days (07 and 08 September). Weeds were were removed from the areas around and under the bridge, which were also given a tidy up. The bridge was jacked up so that the wooden beams which had been supporting the rear and the sides of the structure could be removed. The bridge was then lowered so that it rested on the wheels again.

July 2019

The excess Denso Paste that had squashed out from between the new and old tracks was scraped off during the work party on 12 July. The two side girders were surveyed in an effort to understand the twist in the structure (photo right) and more of the shed was painted.

There was an unscheduled work party on 05 July in preparation for work by a contractor later in the month. 3mm aluminium packing pieces were fitted between the original and new turntable liner rings. Aluminium was chosen for the packers as it will corrode sacrificially if water gets in, so protecting the wrought iron. This event should be excluded by the use of Denso paste and tape (photo below right), which were donated by the manufacturer.

The twenty aluminium segments fitted perfectly and inspection revealed that the 3.5 m diameter heavy forged wrought iron track had been made to an accuracy of 3-4 mm, a fantastic achievement by the 1840s blacksmiths!

The two chains that restrained the Bridge while it was raised are now redundant and were removed.

June 2019

The bridge was jacked up on 08 June to allow timbers to be removed, and it was then lowered to just above the turntable wheels. There will have to be some adjustments made at the next work party, due to some ground movement at the east end.There was further work on the bridge on 15 June.

May 2019

The new 20mm steel turntable liner-ring is now in position and Dorothea Restorations plan to start welding it in place on 22nd July. But bfore then the bridge has to be lowered onto its ring and lined up. The new collar has been fitted around the pintle, and rollers and plates installed under the east end of the Bridge to allow it to move as necessary. The tail end was jacked up (photo below right) so that some of the supporting timbers could be removed. Unfortunately the 12 inch square softwood timbers had started to soften after three years and acted like springs, expanding when the pressure was released which made them difficult to extract. Completing work in this area is taking longer than expected, so that there will have to be two extra work parties in June if the July deadline for contract work is to be met.

April 2019

The April work party saw the arrival of yet another volunteer, who was soon put to work helping to lift and move the old, redundant, turntable-wheel out of the way of the bridge sub-structure. Parts of a new bronze collar to hold the bridge central were fitted, after the bridge was first lifted a few centimeters to fit them, something that was quite hard work. The collar was slightly under-size, so an bronze make-up piece is having to be machined.  Grass and weeds were were also cleared from the whole site.

Two visitors from the Institute of Structural Engineers, together with the editor of the Institution of Civil Engineering's 'Proceedings of the ICE - Engineering History and Heritage', were given a guided tour around the site (photo right). The latter expects to publish the papers to be presented at the conference 'Building Bridges with Brunel' on 6th September in the Create Centre.

March 2019

An important milestone was reached when the last of the four wheels which support the Bridge and allow it to turn was levelled.  This work has taken two years, during which time one wheel and several bearings have been replaced and there has been several surveys and re-surveys. The wheels are all now within 3mm of the same level, so should support the 70 tonne structure well. 25% of the workforce was under 20 so the next generation are already involved.

February 2019

The first workday of 2019 saw the arrival of two newcomers. They joined in with the work in hand which included cleaning and painting the north wall of shed 149, weeding the area around the bridge, and levelling the turntable's south west wheel. The south-east wheel was raised, the rust cleaned off the underside of the plummer-blocks with an angle-grinder. Surfaces were protected with grease and the bearings were re-bedded on 18mm steel packers to bring the wheel to the same height as the others.

Other Brunel's Swing Bridge Pages

As well as an introductory page, the other Brunel's Swing Bridge pages cover: events at the bridge, including the dates of work parties; reports of work parties in 2018, 2020, 2021 and 2022; photos of work parties in 2020, 2021, and 2022; information on the 170th Anniversary events; and copies of the display boards.

< Back to Project List