Brunels railways

[Dennis]

Not just Brunel really, but all the other early railway builders.

Considering the feats of engineering and construction they performed 150-175 years ago, imagine what they might have done with modern equipment and techniques available to them.

Just what might Brunel have got done if he had modern materials like concrete and steel, modern design techniues like CAD and construction techniques like proper tunnel boring machines or even a fleet of diggers at his disposal. I can't even imagine.....

 

[Templecombe]

noone can but it would have been awesome

 

[sprinterguy]

Given the duplicity and density of the railway network at the height of railway mania, perhaps it's a good thing the railway barons of old didn't have access to a fleet of diggers! You wouldn't be able to move for rail lines!

The 19th century railway builders achieved some amazing feats of engineering with very few resources to hand; just look at the likes of the Settle and Carlisle line and the West Highland: Railways built across an inhospitable landscape without the aid of just about any kind of machinery. I wonder which schemes that were axed at the outset would have got the go ahead if the constructors had had access to the cheaper construction methods we do now?

To look at it from the opposite angle, how many of the railway schemes that do exist (or did exist before Beeching) would have happened if they were all subject to the same level of health and safety appraisal and cost benefit analysis that modern day projects are? Very few I imagine!

 

[jopsuk]

Do remember though the sheer numbers of near-slave condition workers needed for these feats, and the large numbers of them that were maimed and killed along the way. There was a big human price to pay.

 

[LE Greys]

Hmm, I can see the 'atmospheric railway' being worked by electric traction, as the idea of a remote power station moving a train is basically the same idea. I can also see Brunel building to a much bigger loading gauge. Imagine a 7ft gauge HST with coaches 12ft wide and 16ft high, with two passenger decks.

 

[moonrakerz]

Just what might Brunel have got done if he had modern materials like concrete and steel, modern design techniues like CAD and construction techniques like proper tunnel boring machines or even a fleet of diggers at his disposal. I can't even imagine.....

He might have decided that building decent quality roads was his forte ! :roll: