[montie]

Most evenings when we're driving home up in the rush hour up netherthorpe road to the university roundabout there is a strange and sometimes offensive smell. Pretty much like gas, but much less pleasant.

Anyone know what this is?

(In the absence of 'nasty smell smiley' - )

(PS, sorry if this is asked every other week, very new here and haven't found search function yet)

[Zebra]

That smell varies a lot and I've always been very suspicious of it, being rather close to hospitals and their sewerage/dispoal systems and additionally the Uni training depts in the area.
I normally hold my breath till I've driven over it

[pedro1]

I know what you mean. I work at the uni and the smell is sometimes on western bank. It smells like something dead. Could be something to do with the animal experiments they do but you wouldn`t get the to admit to it.

[montie]

eek - animal experiments? I don't want to think about that....

Actually, I could go for the sewerage explanation, now I think about it, does smell a bit like wee.

Any Environmental Health officers in tonight???

[Space]

Its been there years! If its the same smell as I think it is, it is actually sulphur from the car exhausts (the ones with catalytic converters) after they have been driving up Netherthorpe road. When the cars stop, because the engines have been worked going up Netherthorpe and then they suddenly idle when you get to the top which causes the sulphur to be ejected without being fully burnt (or something like that)...

The fumes used to smell SO much better without those damned things on the exhaust!

[TrashyBook]

I walk from Netherthorpe to West Bar every day, and have noticed this smell quite a few times.

I don't know whether it's car exhaust fumes or something to do with the drains.... but it's very nasty.

The only thing I can think of that smells similar is the maggot farm at Barnburgh..... smells like the inside of a bait box that's never been cleaned out!

[SpeedwayDan]

yep, catalytic converters can give off a nasty smell after the car has been working hard going up a hill

[owdlad]

Them students are to blame

[montie]

Space - nooooo, I know what catalytic converter sulphur smells like, mix was wrong on our car some years ago and it is a truly distinctive smell!
Surely the people who live round there smell it???

[Space]

The cats burn crap off in many different ways depending on the circumstances.. I think you will find that after an engine has been worked hard then suddenly idling, you will get that smell which is at the top of Netherthorpe.

If your mixture was wrong, it will cause other substances to burn incorrectly and emit even more foul smelling fumes when mixed with the sulphur..

As I said, the exhaust used to smell nice (to me) before they put those catalytic converters ... ahh well

[montie]

Thanks Space, that makes a lot of sense.

[Frodo]

I smell it at 5.00pm when I am coming home from my hard day at work - it smells like bad gutters.

Sometimes it really honks,other times it just smells a bit 'cabbagey'.

[Halibut]

Noticed this myself when cycling up there a few days ago in rush hour - really horrid - the catalytic converter explanation makes sense to me, it is a sulphourous whiff. Thanks for the explanantion

[Internetowl]

Originally posted by owdlad
Them students are to blame

surely you're not suggesting its the smell of them actually getting a bit of work done. More likely its from the nearby tenament blocks...

[Knoxville]

Originally posted by montie
Most evenings when we're driving home up in the rush hour up netherthorpe road to the university roundabout there is a strange and sometimes offensive smell. Pretty much like gas, but much less pleasant.

Anyone know what this is?

(In the absence of 'nasty smell smiley' - )

(PS, sorry if this is asked every other week, very new here and haven't found search function yet)

Hendersons?

[Nimrod]

Sheffield University used to have an animal "breeding station" on Blackstock Rd. The stink out of the extractors was appalling, the staff were appalling, the whole place reeked of death. Contract security guys were told "no experiments actually take place here", but nobody believed them. When the staff came on-site to enter the buildings, the guards were ordered to stay in their office and not to follow any of the staff into any building.
The guards eventually refused to work on that site and the contract was lost.