Open House 2024 (4): Kirkaldy's Testing Works

99 SOUTHWARK STREET, SE1 0JF

Open House Website says;

Proudly carved over the door are the words ‘Facts not Opinions’. Inside, the authentic sight - and smell - of Kirkaldy’s Testing and Experimenting Works is a unique and direct link with an ingenious age of engineering.

I’ve long wanted to visit this unique bit of Victorian engineering heritage in Southwark but never managed to align available time and their opening days. The works own website at https://www.testingworks.org.uk/about gives the whole story of David Kirkaldy and his pioneering work of testing structural materials in a standardised and scientific way. The works remained in his family until 1965 and continued to operate under new ownership until 1974. A museum trust was set up in 1983 to retire and maintain the machines and the works and in 2014 the works and the huge Universal Testing Machine are listed at Grade II*.

 

Stepping through the front door of the Victorian building you are confronted by the almost 50 foot long Universal Testing Machine which dominates the room. Using water hydraulic pressure and a mechanical linkage the machine can exert a load of 440 tons on the material to be tested and it’s big enough to test large building components. There are numerous examples of iron, steel. and other material test pieces displayed that have been tested to breaking point. The museum volunteers are happy to explain how the beast functions, the history of the works, and what they’ve needed to do to restore the machine to working order. 

 

 As well as the Universal Testing Machine the museum has a collection of other testing machines of varying vintages - nearly all of which are old enough to be pre-metric so visiting students first need to be introduced to pounds, inches, and pounds per square inch and the conversion factors to change them into the SI units they’re more familiar with. There are machines to test seemingly everything from the tensile strength of parachute cord and webbing to the hardness of stone samples.

 

It’s a very un-museum-like space, very much a works building and since this is filled with old oily machinery from a time when mechanism guards were not considered necessary and which was operated by people who knew what they were doing you are reminded to watch where you’re putting your fingers 😀 

It’s a fascinating place, particularly if you are interested in machines, run by very nice people and I really need to get back on one of the premium tours when they actually run the machine and break stuff!

There are more photos in my Open House 2024 Flickr Album.

More info including opening times on the Kirkaldy’s Testing Works website 

 

 

 

Power Points

Saturday 21st September 2019

Between two houses in a suburban street in Woking, Surrey behind a metal gate is a low Art Deco building. Normally off-limits to the public except for two weekends in September (so you've missed it this year) this is the British Railways Electrical Control Room.

The Woking Electrical Control Room was built in 1936 as a control centre for the electrification of the Southern Railways lines, the room was taken out of operational use in 1997, although parts of the building remain occupied.

The building has many art deco features both outside and inside, and retains many original fittings including three copper and iron uplighters, track diagrams with working lights and switches, and the original control desk.

The building is Grade II listed so has escaped the usual fate of redundant railway buildings.

Inside you first see the backs of the track diagram panels, complete with exposed electrical  wiring and Do Not Touch signs, in the outer corridor. Passing through a double door you enter the control room proper which is is much the same state as it was when retired in 1997.

It's an impressive space. The high domed ceiling means that a person speaking normally at one end of the room can be clearly heard at the other (making it quite noisy with a group of visitors split into two tour groups).

The tours are conducted by retired BR power engineers so they know about the building, its

history, and how it all works. They explained clearly how power for the trains and signalling was distributed, how it could be switched on or off, and how the control system could be used to locate faults. Obviously they also have a stock of interesting and amusing anecdotes from their time working on the network.

The track diagram and some other control equipment is powered up for demonstration purposes too which is much better than just a static display. Flashing lights and things that go round are always good 😃

Also on the control desk were some old log books including that covering the great storm of 1987  when trees blown onto the line and onto the line side power equipment kept the control room operators and engineers very busy indeed.

Once the tour was done there was no hurry to move visitors out, it wasn't very busy and I understand visitor numbers per day over the two weekends were in dozens rather than hundreds. 

That meant there was plenty of time to talk with the volunteer guides and I had a long and wide-ranging discussion covering the similarities and differences between the world of railway electrical supply and that of public telecommunications, amongst other things. 

I really enjoyed this visit and if you can get to Woking next year when it's open again it's definitely worth it whether you're interested in architecture, railways, or engineering. Or even if you're just curious - it doesn't cost anything to go in and you don't need to book ahead.

More photographs:

Behind the hoardings at Whitechapel Elizabeth Line Station

Got a sneak preview of the new Crossrail Elizabeth Line station at Whitechapel this morning. Well not so much sneak actually as Crossrail are quite keen for people to come and see what's going on as part of their "Engineering - take a closer look" Open Days programme.

Whitechapel ticket hall

The station is still very much a construction site and for the event there were plenty of barriers and plenty of staff on hand to guide visitors around and to answer questions about the station and the new railway generally.

The new ticket hall cum concourse will also form a new route north-south from Whitechapel Road for the locals.

The roof of the ticket hall is a "green roof" topped with sedum plants which gives benefits for biodiversity, conservation, and noise reduction.

The escalators are still being installed, they're in but not finished so no step-free access yet. Instead visitors had to take the 164 steps (according to the information supplied with the invitation ticket) down to platform level. I didn't count them but it did feel like it on the way back up! 

It's the equivalent of a fifteen storey building. (That's an "in joke" the explanation for which can be found here. 😉

Once at platform level visitors were able to explore and take photos and ask questions. Parts of two of the platforms were open, one a little more finished than the other, also the cross passages, and the bottom "landing" area of the three escalators.

Platform level. Light airy space with LED lighting and full-height platform edge doors.

Cross passage showing wide curved corners to ease passenger flows.













New purple roundels!

The escalators.

Slightly less finished platform.

Platform seating.

Notice showing how platform signage will be laid out.

Another cross passage. Cladding still being applied.

As I was coming out transport video blogger Geoff Marshal was going in so for a much better look at the station than I can give you I suggest you check out his Youtube Channel where the video he was making today is now online.

If you're interested in railways, Crossrail, or engineering generally check out the Crossrail Events page where you can sign up to get advance notice of events like the one today. 

They even gave away freebies 😀

Whitechapel Crossrail Oyster Wallet