Greville's Folly
Bridging Georges River Casula 1954
Engineer instructor Major Phil Greville had the mad urge to replicate the bridge which had been built by the Brit engineers to cross the Rhine - built on the friendly side of the river, and launched in segments to meet the unfriendly bank. He had read of it in the Brit engineer journal, which drove him to try to match it, using the slave labour of the Class 55 visiting School of Mlitary Engineering Casula.
Upstream Panel Party Resting
Teams of eight had to hump, lump and lift the Bailey Bridge panels into place, connected progressively to the bridge. This part of the bank was a worthy rest stop as it was above the Georges River flood level which was covered in a foot of liquid silt.
Taking a well-earned rest from their travail:
L-R Back: Peter Murray Tony Barr
L-R Front: Miles Farmer Peter Shreeve Len Buckley Don Paterson Nev Lindsay
NRL
Upstream Panel Party Pretending to Work
Squelching around in the viscous mud, a new panel is going into the critical element - the landing platform for the far side, which was the key to the structure. It had to be double-double, that is lifting a second row of panels on top of the bottom ones.
L-R Unk Unk Unk Ken Cooke Nev Lindsay Unk
NRL
Far Landing Module - The Hard Bit
Raising the double-double panels. Even the redoubtable Upstream Panel Party needed several other panel parties to make this one work.
Can anyone remember, or confess to being, the holder of the rawhide hammer, which exempted them from the humping and lumping?
NRL
Pretend Boatmen
The panels had to be mounted on boat pontoons, a great excuse for doing little and avoiding the rigours of the Panel Parties.
L-R Back: Unk Unk Unk
NRL
Getting the Bridge in Place
Launched from the friendly side, it needed the landing module for the far side, and a linking module floated in as the final middle span.
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Middle Panel Floated In
All that is missing is the far landing panel which, thanks to the slackness of the panel parties allotted to it, was not completed before the Class had to move on the the Artillery segment of the tour of instruction.
Phil Greville was not greatly pleased that his ambitions were thwarted.
NRL
