Queen Mary: SEcond Class Stairs bottom

At the bottom of the stairs, we opened a door. Much to our surprise, there sat a security guard. His white passage way, the bright sun outside, and the shock of seeing him there were in direct contrast to the dark stair tower that we had been sneaking down.

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These are last two glass panels in the Queen Mary Second Class stair tower that I know of. We climbed down, photographing as we went, as far as we could go. When we opened a door at the bottom, we found ourselves catty corner from the security guard stationed at the Employee Entrance.

The first panel offers us two 1930's cars, a bus, and a motorcycle. In the second panel, three speed boats oddly echoing the modern "go-fast," zip through the panel forever frozen in time.

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Increasingly nervous the deeper we went down into the ship, we took record pictures in a haphazard manner. Here is a wonderful panel of a streamilined train against an electrical tower....both symbolizing the advances made during the 1930's. Note the beautiful burled wood and the nickled stantions of the hand rail.

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In the 1800's there were over 125 companies manufacturing steam automobiles. By the turn of the century, the American Local History Network tells us, "Doble, Stanley and White had become the most successful. " This glass panel shows us a couple, swathed in linen against the dust of the roads, enjoying their day outting.

Queen Mary: Second Class Stairs: 11

At the end of the Eighteenth century, engineers began putting together various designs for steam propelled carriages. The land was needed for food not horses was the thinking. This early steam carriage illustrated in Queen Mary's second class stairs, is an close in design to the 1803 Trevithick London Steam Carriage. The link in the title has a photograph of a replica done from Trevithick's original drawings and plans.

Queen Mary: Second Class Stair Glass 9

George Stephenson found himself too poor to emigrate to America. After schooling and working himself up to head engineer at the West Moore Coal Mine, at age 20 he build the first steam locomotive.
About.com says, "After ten months' labor, this locomotive was completed and put upon the Cillingwood Railway on the 25th July, 1814, and tried. On an ascending grade of one in four hundred and fifty feet, this engine succeeded in drawing after it eight loaded wagons of thirty tons' weight, at about flour miles an hour, and was the most successful working engine that had ever been constructed up to this period. "

Queen Mary: Second Class Stairs: Sailing Ships

Two of the sailing ships that made the island of Brittain so famous. George and I had lots of fun sneaking down the closed to the public section of the Second Class Stair tower to photograph these glass dividers. Skulking and in a hurry, it wasn't until later that we discovered several panels on the same topic....like the chairs and sailing ships.