Brunel Swivel BridgeBrunel's Other Bridge

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Brunel Swivel Bridge Project Photos July 2014

Same weekend as Harbour festival. Not affected except for many more swings of the Plimsoll Bridge
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Getting the other wheel sumps clean so they can drain again like this one does that we cleaned last month. Where it goes who knows!
Brunel Swivel Bridge
Lots of room for Maggie and Geoff to clean out the wheel pit

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Work PHASE A Preparation and Basic Conservation by Volunteers

No experience needed, all equipment provided, and you'll get really involved in helping to save Brunel's Other Bridge.

Contact Maggie Shapland (Maggie.shapland@gmail.com) if you wish to help.

Details of work

Details of progress in 2013

Details of progress in 2014 and working days.

Saturday 19 July 2014

The A team- Geoff, Maggie and Mike
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Erecting the hoist again to lift the third turntable wheel (south west)
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We also erected a shelter as thunder and lightening was threatened
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Wheel pit full of water ready to clean out, clearly demonstrating the problem
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So easy with a hoist
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Demonstrates how much mud stuck in wheel holes
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Bailed out the water, now for the mud. It was hard near the end and had to be chiselled out. When was it done last time?
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Geoff got his endoscope out once we found the drain hole (it went down 400 mm)
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Nice clean pit
endoscope
The remains of a large, decayed (? softwood) bearer can be seen in the photos. (The white stalk visible is a root, with a wood-louse on the end).
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Then the skies opened but our tent kept us dry
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Inside hub and bearing
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Outside hub and bearing in worse state

Sunday 20 July 2014

Lots of help so lots done on a lovely sunny day. Arms and legs strewn around all over the place
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Last wheel being lifted out of the water.
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Lots of woodlice and spiders this time. Bearings in good order
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Why the wheel pit needs draining
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Mike helped Maggie bail out, followed by Bob. Each pit seems to generate about 3 buckets of water and hard mud
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Bob enjoying the work
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Maggie doing the last wheel
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Usual hard mud that needs chiselling out. When we found the hole. It was only 6 1/2" with a solid bottom and was full of a strong smelling steam grease or oil
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Outside hub and bearing good condition
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Geoff having checked the hole with the endoscope put liberal amounts of grease on and we put the caps back on
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Bob then did some measuring
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Mike Bone and Martyn Hart cleaned the pintle base and cleaned and checked the nuts
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One can either sit down or lie down.
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Clean pintle base
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Mike's clean hydraulic pit
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If one gets a sneaky look at the suspension bridge, one notices an electricity point
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And an unusual view of the boats going home from the Harbour Festival. This wheel definitely provided good view points of everything on a lovely sunny day
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So we had something to drink and shared a joke with Mike who was in one of the hydraulic pits cleaning it out
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Harbour master could not fit any more boats in the lock
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Marilyn and Mary turned up and we all had a meeting and talked about the future
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We were also treated to a display by the Pyronaut. Wonder if the ferry passengers hot wet. A good end to a very productive and varied day

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