Graham Mills' Age of Steam

   Our final destination this week was on Kitely,  with Graham Mills, a talented builder, educator, and story-teller. Named, Age of Steam, the build celebrates the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company  

Graham Mills: this is a recreation of the world's first railway station 
Don Smith: Nicely done Graham, i was here recently, loved it

Graham.Mills: opened in 1830 and closed in 1836 because it was too small, all before photography, so just paintings and sketches to go from. The opening day was 15th Sept, there were 750 guests, amazingly complex to organise; the army must have helped, Wellington was guest of honour, he was Prime Minister at the time and rather unpopular he got a particularly rough time at the other end of the line, Manchester, 30 miles away, a lot of folk didn't want the railways either as they thought it would ruin the nvironment and put poeople out of a job, which was true in part.
Serene Jewell: Darn railway/automobile/internet/cellphones.... 
 Praline B: wow this build is awesome and all in prims
Graham Mills: normally 4 horse-drawn omnibusses would bring 1st class passengers here, you had to book the day before, on the opening ceremony they came in their own carriages -- there was a one-way system outside. The railway carriages were incredibly tightly packed, 26 was a typical number
Serene.Jewell: Pretty crowded

Graham Mills: most were 4-5 coaches on opening day, yellow were first class, blue second class
Serene Jewell: Let the random sitting on things begin!
Graham.Mills: all sorts of ways to make second class passengers miserable, not least Embers from the firebox, lol many complaints of damage to clothing at the front is a pilot wagon, this was used for brakes
Thirza Ember: some scary umbrella accidents too i bet
Serene Jewell: Lots of stepping on dresses I'm sure.
Graham Mills: the dresses were huge in those days major issues getting into carriages, but folk were used to stagecoaches,  so nobody thought proper platforms necessary. This is the first ever railway shed and incidentally platform, although it was poorly designed as the pillars sometimes meant you couldn't open the doors
Serene Jewell: I need a ticket!
Kurtis Anatine: That will be 1 shilling please
Graham Mills: this was the train used by the Duke, the VIPs and the Directors of the company, it started in the tunnel and they pushed it out -- nice theatrical effect, gasps from the audience, three bands are playing, the Duke arrives. Thousands of people around cheering. He waves to everyone. He's dressed in black but has a sensible thick cloak on (the King had just died)... Notice anything?
Graham Mills: No engines!! They made the tunnel too small!

snowbody Cortes: wow!
Thirza Ember: that is hilarious
Praline B: yes lol
Graham Mills: but there was a slope anyway so they couldn't use engines (which liked it flat) so they ran the carriages down by gravity and up by rope or donkeys, so to get started the staff would push the train - technical, eh?

          We walked through the dark tunnel to the next station Edge Hill, which is where they coupled trains, the dark interior made us al think about how much soot people must have breathed in back then.
Kurtis Anatine: this is where coal lung came from right?
Serene Jewell: What are the barrels for?
Kurtis Anatine: i think its for water isnt it?
Graham Mills: This is where they coupled up the locomotives, the barrels are for water -- to make the steam - easy to forget they needed water, but they were on the outside of town - no mains water, so they pumped their own. The arch above me has stationary engines, one in each tower; they powered the rope for hauling the trains, and pumped the water, the arch was a signature build, but cleverly hid all the techie stuff :)
Serene Jewell: People are ingenious.
Praline B: coming from indian architecture?
Graham Mills: yes -- asian, unusual as most was neo-classical, ie Greek
Praline B: ok ;)

Thirza Ember: people must have thought they were living at the end of one age and the beginning of another.. like the Moon landing... life would never be the same
Graham Mills:it was a momentous step -- travel had never been so fast they moved vast quantities of coal, and fresh food; cities and factories became possible, one end of the country was soon connected to the other - railwaymania began
Serene Jewell: So many people that had only known there one small area would be changed by traveling on railways.
Praline B: yes, a real step , revolution, how exciting it was at this time!
Thirza Ember: what got you interested in this station and event?
Graham.Mills: um, I work on Crown Street. Never knew it had such a pivotal role. Decided it was a good subject for a build,  it's a public park now, so i can do mixed reality.
Praline B: Really interesting build Graham, I very glad to revisit this part of the steam history! This build is really realistic,
Serene.Jewell: So, someday people can take their iphone and see what the park used to look like by viewing your recreation, Graham.
Graham.Mills: yes, Serene, it's easy enough to capture panoramas already, RL to Opensim to AR To RL, that's the idea, connect ppl to their heritage, release an OAR, let them work with it.
Praline B: that works fine Graham ;))
snowbody Cortes: super
Graham Mills: trying to get cultural and historical organisations interested at city level, some progress - I would, of course, like to get the trains running, maybe next 15th Sept
Thirza Ember: that would be wonderful also, but they tell a story here in the statio that is very interesting
 snowbody Cortes: it seems all alive

Graham Mills: well, as you may know, the opening ceremony was a disaster after the triumphal departure - the local Member of Parliament was killed, run over by a loco, so a very gloomy return!
Serene Jewell: Saving the gruesome bit for last, Graham? :-)
Graham Mills: very hostile crowd at Manchester- Hasty return - engine failures, engines in the wrong place, 3 engines ended up pulling 24 carriages -- very slowly, but the next day they ran an excursion and the day after that opened for business and never looked back!

HG Address: grid.kitely.com:8002:age of steam