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Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017658
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017658
Completed in 1872, this engine-shop formed part of the 35-acre (14 ha) shipbuilding yard of Alexander Step hen and Sons established three years previously on the country estate of Linthouse, S of the River Clyde. Subsequently modified, and by 1980 the only workshop of the complex not dismantled, it consisted of two parallel machine-halls with clear spans of 53 ft (16.15m) and an original estimated length of 240 ft (73m) subdivided into 20 ft (6.10m) bays by stanchions and terminal brick piers. They were flanked by 33 ft-wide (10.06m) aisles containing lofts covered by a continuation of the main roof slopes, and the s side also had a second aisle of similar width. Apart from the use of malleable iron plate-girders for the gantries the structural techniques show no advance on those employed in the previous examples. The I-section stanchions, each said to weigh 6 tons (6.1 tonnes), had web-flange dimensions of 36 in (0.91m) by 18in (0.46m). Specific points were the integral castings for the brackets carrying the gantry, the tier of twin binding-beams, and the different treatment of the centre and flanking rows of stanchions at gantry level. A novel feature was the mid-point support between stanchions for the roof structure, achieved by a combination of coupled beams and a centre-post held in suspension by tie-rods, slung between the stanchions to connect with a stirrup and cross-beam. Bracket jib-cranes with wooden booms were fixed to alternate stanchions in both machine halls and aisles.
Information from ‘Monuments of Industry: An Illustrated Historical Record’, (1986).
