Demolition

The demolition continues. One machine chomps through metal; the other moves it. The power and the precision is mesmerising.

Best of all was when the two machines did a slow, perfectly choreographed dance together to lift a huge heavy sliced-through chunk of 19th century riveted girder from its surroundings, slowly and gently haul it backwards through the air, turn, move forward and place it on the pile of scrap. The skill!

Apparently the sleepers are 6 metre lengths of mahogany. In Brunel's day, those would have been long enough for two wide-gauge trains to pass side by side. But this line of his will have been converted to standard gauge in the mid-19th century.


Extra: a tree that appeared at Upfest between yesterday and today.