The Brunel buildings at Totnes are all that remains of the southern end of Brunel's Atmospheric Railway, which worked by pumping air out of a tube mounted centrally in the track. There was no moving engine - just rolling stock, each of which had a piston set into the air tube, with the joint being closed by leather seals. It worked just fine, but the leather seals kept being eaten by rats, so it was too unreliable in the end and was scrapped.
The concept was brilliant and you can't help but wonder how well it would work using modern materials instead of leather...
Anyway, we are trying to save this, one of the three remaining Brunel pumping houses, from being demolished by developers who did not even know what the building was until we told them.
See
http://www.totnesonline.com for the story.
See
http://www.totnesonline.com/brunel for the pictures taken on 18th Feb and
http://www.totnesonline.com/brunel/Feb_25 for the pics taken a week later, showing how they have further damaged the building, despite being told not to by the South Hams District Council 'enforcer'.
If you feel moved to support us in this, here are some email addresses to send your comments to:
Simon Thurley -
chief.executive@english-heritage.org.uk
Simon Hoskins, properties officer at Dairy Crest
simon.hoskins@dairycrest.co.uk
Dairy Crest's Press Officer -
Lyndsey.Anderson@dairycrest.co.uk
Rick Crombie -
Rick.Crombie@southhams.gov.uk
(Enforcement Officer, Planning & Building Control, South Hams District Council - quote "When I visited the site on the 14th Feb I did not consider the works currently underway to remove asbestos tiles amounted to demolition...")
Any help appreciated!
