In the Nick of Time

It wouldn’t be everyone’s idea of a birthday treat to go to Newport Gwent, but that was where I chose to go back in 2001. My wife and I had a nerdy day out.

We have looked at the wonderful transporter bridge before on this blog. Click here for a reminder.

This post is about a clock erected in 1992 in Newport’s John Frost Square. I thought it was fantastic – so bizarre and unexpected. I’m not sure where or even if it is now. Apparently it was dismantled in 2008, by then not in good condition.

Anyway, here is the clock, as it was in November 2001.

It’s in the form of an ancient arch and all is peace at two minutes to eleven.

But on the hour, vents open and start hissing steam and then devilish figures appear.

Figures appear everywhere.

And then, horror of horrors, the clock collapses.

Fortunately, it quickly recovers.

Peace returns for another hour.

What a wonderful item. And how sad if it is never to be seen again.

The Newport Transporter Bridge

Time was when the River Usk, in South Wales was a major transport artery for tall ships. Any structure over the river needed to be at a high level. But at Newport, the land is fairly low and flat. The engineering needed to build a high bridge would have been massive. The solution was to suspend a moving platform below a high superstructure and move that platform from one side of the river to the other – a transporter bridge.

There’s the structure for the true nerd, the tower height is 242 feet and the moving deck hangs 177 feet below the horizontal beam. The platform, or gondola, has to travel some 645 feet.

There’s the laden gondola in transit.

There’s the rather pretty driving compartment and a driver at work.

The bridge was opened in 1906. My pictures date from 2002.