The View From Above: This Train is Made Entirely Out of Bricks!

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

This Train is Made Entirely Out of Bricks!

(Click photo to enlarge)

54°31'23.84"N 1°29'52.52"W

No, it's not a train that hauls bricks.... It's a train made entirely of bricks! The Darlington "Brick Train" was opened on Monday, 23rd June 1997. It was modeled on the 1938 record setting 126mph steam locomotive "Mallard". Funded by the National Lottery and various other sponsors, it contains a total of 185,000 bricks along with 170 cubic meters of concrete. The train weighs 15,000 tonnes and covers an area of 600 sq meters. It is of hollow construction and measures 23ft high by 130ft long. It took a team of 34 brick layers, laborers and apprentices 21 weeks to build.

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Why "View From Above"

I have an unquenchable thirst for exploration and mysteries. But that isn't the only reason for "View From Above." This blog exists primarily thanks to the despicable ignorance and laziness of the many, many people who will post a picture of some anomaly and simply make guesses about it, rather than do five minutes worth of research. I can't count the many times I've seen aerial pictures of "UFOs parked in a row on the beach" (They're beach umbrellas, you dork!) or questions like, "What's this aircraft doing sitting in the middle of the desert?" (It's a military firing range. They use junk aircraft as targets. Duh!) The unwillingness on the part of most people to do even a minimal amount of research just boggles the mind.

Another pet peeve of mine is the practice of posting an interesting site without a precise location. I don't know if it's laziness, oversight, or a desire to hoard information, but it's irritating as hell to me. That's why mosts of my posts will always include coordinates to the site.

I hope you'll enjoy perusing the sites I've listed. I can't take credit for being the first to "find" most of them, but I will do my best to let you know what I find out about them!

Michael Makai