VR Train journey into Manchester 1850.

[jonny777]

Another step forward in VR railway choices?

 

[Arthur]

 

Thanks for posting that, a very enjoyable trip back in time. Where will such technology take us?

 

I'll post a link on Ron Heggs Manchester Central thread as Ron is modeling some of that, though a century later.

[johnd]

Some how think Manchester would be a smokey place by then, doesn't seem like much smog being about. Just as bad now not caused by coal smoke but by diesel and petro chemicals

[jonny777]

Some how think Manchester would be a smokey place by then, doesn't seem like much smog being about. Just as bad now not caused by coal smoke but by diesel and petro chemicals

 

 

Yes, that was my feeling. I have seen photos of Lancashire towns from the early 20th century and the skylines of chimneys by the hundred all belching smoke are what struck me about the conditions people had to endure. I doubt the 1850s were that much better.

[Arthur]

It was very dirty and polluted as chronicled by contemporary writers like Elizabeth Gaskell, wife of a Unitarian minister, who lived in Manchester from 1932 and wrote about the people and conditions. As the worlds first industrial city it attracted interest from a number of writers of the day many of whom commented on the squalor in which many lived.

 

Gaskell has become better known of late as she wrote Cranford on which the TV series was based.

[kevinlms]

Another step forward in VR railway choices?

 

Wow, when did they build the tunnel?

 

 

 

 

Victorian Railways, as in Victoria Australia!

[jonny777]

Wow, when did they build the tunnel?

 

 

 

 

Victorian Railways, as in Victoria Australia!

 

 

You've lost me, I'm afraid.

 

If you mean VR, I meant it to refer to Virtual Reality.

[rue_d_etropal]

technology like this will get even better. smog is probably in next upgrade. I would assume it is based on maps from the period, so buildings are correct. Was hoping it would continue so could see which station t was heading for, and showing station signs might have helped. Like everything you always want more!

[Arthur]

The large station it was heading for, over to the left was London Road, much later Manchester Piccadilly. Manchester's Mayfield station would later, 1910, be built on the opposite side of the line to London Road.

 

The first station the train passes through was Knott Mill & Deansgate, 1849, later known just as Deansgate, and over to the left at that point Manchester Central would open in 1880.

 

The second station passed through is Oxford Road, also 1849, it's name board is shown in the film.

[DonB]

Probably OT,  but as late as 1900 a lot of Companies' catalogues showed artists impressions, as if from a high standpoint, of the particular Company's works as copper engravings. (I have one, a 7" x 5" engraved sheet of copper attached to a block of hard wood, never printed, but  can be dated to 1890s.)

Almost without exception, every chimney is depicted as belching goodly quantities of smoke just to show how busy the factory was ! The smoke was never shown as being below roof level and usually following the perspective lines of the picture, not necessarily the prevailing wind direction.

The engravers probably went to war in 1914, and were eventually replaced by aerial photography.