Bailey Bridges in the UK

[Barry O]

10 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

But tracked vehicles have a lower ground pressure so the weight is spread.

When it says MLC 40T it is amilitary designation of vehicle loading for bridges.  This bridge had a MLC 40 sign on it. A Challenger 1 had an MLC of 70. The MLC  takes into account weight, number of wheel stations and track width and length. It is also used to define the maximum span width for the bridge.

 

Bridging for the 90s which is the main mobile bridge in the British Army is MLC 80.. good for up to 80 tonnes.

 

Baz

Edited July 7, 2021 by Barry O

[burgundy]

6 hours ago, stewartingram said:

Might it be worth contacting the Army? Not a silly offer, they might well still have expertise, and an offchance they might stage an exercise based on checking it out, or even repairing it?

 

Stewart

I suspect that the army might be more interested in blowing it up!

Design knowledge in kit like this would rest with the legacy organisation that inherited MEXE's design work. That might be somewhere in Qinetiq. However, if the design was sold on to Mabey and Johnson when the army ceased to use this kind of bridging, M & J sound like the best bet. If they still support Bailey bridging, they should have some capability for advising on stress calculations.   

Best wishes 

Eric     

[Mike Bellamy]

 

There is a bridge south of Burton at Walton-on-Trent that is being replaced - perhaps you could get some parts from there ? ?

 

Click Here for Link to Wikipedia Article about Walton Bridge

 

Click Here for Link to Local News item about a Replacement Bridge

 

Click Here for Link to another Local News Report

 

The two news reports give lots of names of companies involved in the new developments in the area and so they can put you in touch with the right people - hopefully they will only want scrap value . . . ! !

.

 

 

[CWS86]

13 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Yes, I think they’ve been superseded by modern equivalents like the Mabey system and some sort of nato standard military trestling.

 

Good luck with the hunt - what about putting an ad in New Civil Engineer?

That’s a good idea although I’ve never heard of it. Is it a magazine?

[Darius43]

Just now, CWS86 said:

That’s a good idea although I’ve never heard of it. Is it a magazine?

 

Its the weekly magazine for the UK Civil Engineering world.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[CWS86]

On 07/07/2021 at 21:28, Mike Bellamy said:

 

There is a bridge south of Burton at Walton-on-Trent that is being replaced - perhaps you could get some parts from there ? ?

 

Click Here for Link to Wikipedia Article about Walton Bridge

 

Click Here for Link to Local News item about a Replacement Bridge

 

Click Here for Link to another Local News Report

 

The two news reports give lots of names of companies involved in the new developments in the area and so they can put you in touch with the right people - hopefully they will only want scrap value . . . ! !

.

 

 

Thanks, I’ve sent them an email. Hopefully something will come of it.

[Richard E]

The company that built the temporary footbridge at Werrington was Janson Bridging of Nottingham, I'm not sure if it was a Bailey Bridge as such or a modern development of the original. They may be in a position to provide assistance.

[CWS86]

6 hours ago, Richard E said:

The company that built the temporary footbridge at Werrington was Janson Bridging of Nottingham, I'm not sure if it was a Bailey Bridge as such or a modern development of the original. They may be in a position to provide assistance.

Thanks

[Adam88]

 

I was always impressed by the temporary bridges built during the American Civil War under the direction of General Haupt.  President Lincoln famously observed: “There is nothing in it but beanpoles and cornstalks”.

 

In the UK there were several wooden viaducts, Brunel's in the west country and, for example, Denby Dale on the Huddersfield and Penistone line.

 

 

 

 

 

[Engineer]

Moving back towards temporary military bridges, the Murmansk Light Railway, looks like Simplex loco and WD bogie wagon on timber trestle bridge

 

 

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:55_Trestle_on_Murmansk_Light_Railway.jpg

See a little more information, third post down on the blog page:

https://www.skyscrapercity.com/threads/russia-urban-transport-compilation.431156/page-59#post-80357848

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by Engineer
Added text describing image conent

[bike2steam]

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.7377934,-1.7883766,3a,75y,270h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1st231wrh0tZdb0PLYLhP-1Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en

 

The old site of the long gone MOD factory that made the bridges, now a major retail site. 

Edited July 11, 2021 by bike2steam

[Engineer]

Near Canterbury, Kent.  Sturry Ballast Pits operated by Robert Brett, 2ft gauge Ruston & Hornsby loco and six side-door hoppers, [Bailey?] bridge over Great Stour river, 4 March, 1976.  Image from Kevin Lane:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/28083135@N06/4823340392/in/album-72157624520255100

 

:

 

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by Engineer
added information from picture caption

[Engineer]

 

Just visible behind the tram a Bailey Bridge with a tenuous railway relevance, across the Thames and alongside the Hungerford railway bridge.  This was installed for better pedestrian access to the Festival of Britain site and was in place from 1950 to 1952..  

https://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffsimages/6324135650/in/album-72157629141104119/

 

Should note that the tram image shows the Northumberland Avenue side of Hungerford Bridge.  The Bailey foot-bridge was on the upstream side - see below.  By the way, I found the picture because I was looking up trams once again.  The tram is an ex-London County Council E/3 class.  Route 72 was in the minority of routes using the Thames Embankment virtual reserved track since the majority used it as a bi-directional reversing loop with separate route numbers for each direction.  Instead, the 72 terminated and reversed clockwise/anticlockwise at Savoy Street, but did use a [relatively rare and distinctive] reversing loop at its other terminus, Woolwich Beresford Square.

 

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31363949@N02/11338105144/

Above link gives some more information on the bridge as well as the aerial image including a view of the southern rail approach to Hungerford Bridge.

 

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p925668130/he12855c4#he12855c4

Additional tram view from Embankment roadway level with temporary bridge in background 1952 07 05

 

 

 

 

Edited October 23, 2021 by Engineer
Use of English and additional information to explain picture

[Engineer]

Having posted previously the link to the evocative image of the narrow-gauge train of hoppers crossing what looked much like a Bailey Bridge:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/28083135@N06/4823340392/in/album-72157624520255100

 

 

I couldn't find any more images on the internet and the only extra information found was that the gravel pits concerned were developed extensively from just before the second war until the 1970s, providing 6.5 millon tons of gravel for construction projects around Kent.  OS maps and Google suggested it would be work a visit to the Sturry area, particularly because one bridge footing seemed to remain on the north bank.  

 

The bridge had allowed diversion and extension of the narrow-gauge rail route that linked to the north-western corner of the site where the aggregates company retains a small presence.  Most of the pit areas are flooded now and converted to a nature reserve.

There's no access to the south bank of the Great Stour but the area to the north is now a nature reserve with private fishing areas, and paths and riverside near the former bridge site are very popular with locals.  

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.298818,1.1364485,3a,75y,94.6h,84.04t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s92t85BBSMRtfLcr7pfEfPQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en-GB

 

The following pictures show the general area and some features of the surviving bridge footings, overall 20' width and maybe 14' centres of the bridge beams.  North side bridge footings in the distance:

 

 

 

There's now a rustic and decaying seat for a nice prospect across the river, just on the former bridge centre line.   To compare with the original posted picture ( https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/114303-bailey-bridges-in-the-uk/&do=findComment&comment=4506289  ), a view taken from the nominal centre of the track alignment looking roughly south, for comparison with the original 1976 image:  

There seemed a distant possibility of other surviving features of the site railways, and I've posted my observations on the 'Abandoned Rails' thread.

 

 

 

Edited July 19, 2021 by Engineer
Added links

[Nearholmer]

If it’s the line I’m thinking of, Bretts at Sturry, it was still operating in the late 1970s. I might even have photos I took there; I certainly visited it, and found a tiny bit still operating.

[ManofKent]

On 18/07/2021 at 21:36, Nearholmer said:

If it’s the line I’m thinking of, Bretts at Sturry, it was still operating in the late 1970s. I might even have photos I took there; I certainly visited it, and found a tiny bit still operating.

I grew up in the area and can just remember the railway - it was still running in the early 70's, but whilst the gravel works carried on for much longer the railway didn't last past the end of the 70's as far as I can recall. As a teenager (80's) you could walk along some of the old track bed near that bridge - there was still rail and sleepers.  I haven't been down there in over 20 years so I've no idea what remains.

 

There was a similar line at their Faversham site, but that was pretty much inaccessible without obvious trespass when I took a wander a few years back and is now being developed as a housing estate,

[Engineer]

"As a teenager (80's) you could walk along some of the old track bed near that bridge - there was still rail and sleepers."

 

For samples of present-day Sturry site remains of track bed, sleepers and rails, see posts:

 

 

 

 

Thank you for adding your recollections.

Edited August 2, 2021 by Engineer
Rectifying an omission

[Artless Bodger]

Thanks to all for the pictures and information about the Brett gravel pit narrow gauge at Sturry. We used to look out for this when we went to Margate on holiday or day out in the '60s. I seem to remember there was also a sort of train ferry barge seen in one gravel pit, it certainly looked like a loco and a couple of wagons on a pontoon sort of thing. Lots of cranes, draglines, my other great interest as a child.

[Engineer]

 

11 hours ago, Artless Bodger said:

Thanks to all for the pictures and information about the Brett gravel pit narrow gauge at Sturry.

Sounds like happy memories.  I hope you spotted the other post with Britain from Above late 1940s views of Sturry station and main line and the adjacent gravel workings with their machinery, conveyors and rail lines.
https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/163553-abandoned-rails-in-the-roador-elsewhere/&do=findComment&comment=4515219  

 

There's another post referring to a different gravel site and some nice images of the machinery there:

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/156456-narrow-gauge-gravelsandaggregate-railways-distance-from-pit-to-end-of-line/&do=findComment&comment=4526892

[Artless Bodger]

1 hour ago, Engineer said:

 

Sounds like happy memories.  I hope you spotted the other post with Britain from Above late 1940s views of Sturry station and main line and the adjacent gravel workings with their machinery, conveyors and rail lines.
https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/163553-abandoned-rails-in-the-roador-elsewhere/&do=findComment&comment=4515219  

 

There's another post referring to a different gravel site and some nice images of the machinery there:

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/156456-narrow-gauge-gravelsandaggregate-railways-distance-from-pit-to-end-of-line/&do=findComment&comment=4526892

I had not seen those threads, so thank you for drawing my attention to them. Family walks around Maidstone in the '60s provided tantalising glimpses of narrow gauge remains, especially on the footpath through Little Switzerland to Allington. Later exploring with school mates led to remains in Bydews Wood at Tovil and bits of a skip in Allington quaries. Iirc the footpath northwards from Castle Road, parallel to the SER North Kent line, led across a ravine down to the siding later used for inward traffic by ARC, and the bridge was possibly a bailey bridge.