Your favourite UK railway structure

[beast66606]

Back on topic.... another favourite bit of railway kit is the old Hump Shunting Signal Box at Bescot, disused and unloved, I'm surprised it's still intact...

 

Who said it was unloved, it's an LMR 15, there are some of us with strange designs on such things

[m0rris]

Although as a structure it is not technically impressive and it used to be a common sight throughout the land I have a soft spot for the coaling/water tower at Didcot Railway Centre.

 

Something about the way it sits imposingly across the whole of the didcot station/yard area does it for me.

 

m0rris

[bluebottle]

Does anyone else find the Forth Bridge a little, erm, creepy...?

 

Creepy? Don't get that. Mind you, in the days before I was old enough to join the Cub Scouts, I had some difficulty in grasping the way the Forth Bridge was used...

[Dudley Dodger]

i'd probably say the dowery dell viaduct on the halesowen line.

Or alternitively, i don't know of it's name, which i doubt exists, but as you go through birmingham on the jewellery line, there is a fantastic, really rather deep, staffordshire blue-lined cutting, and i do like that.

[45156]

Nearly all bridges and viaducts here so far, and I agree that the Ouse viadict on the Brighton line is quite amazing, but I'm surprised that Dave (Max Stafford) has not mentioned the most graceful railway bridge in Scotland and perhaps one of the most beautiful in the UK - Ballochmyle viaduct on the G&SWR main line.

 

Jamie has posted some photos here in the past, but here it is, in all its glory

http://www.oldukphotos.com/graphics/Scotland%20Photos/Ayrshire,%20Mauchline,%20Ballochmyle%20Viaduct.jpg

[LH&JC]

The Larpool viaduct that carried the Whitby to Scarborough railway, if you've travelled by train either to or from Whitby you can't miss it. 13 arches, 915 feet long 125 feet high from the river bed and roughly 5 million bricks went into it

A truly grand bridge.

It's quite big

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I rate Durham viaduct for its' integration into the old city and the view it affords of this architectural gem.

 

... many of the materials for its construction were barged up the River Ouse, which now looks like a stream! ...

Before massive mechanisation made so much in civil enginering easier to accomplish, temporarily damming rivers to give enough water depth to do such things was a commonplace. I had never thought about that until some years ago an archaeologist showed what had been an 'unexplained construction' * where an ancient stream in what is now Turkey had been dammed to enable monumental marble to be worked from a quarry to a Greek temple site.

 

* The stream long gone, its' headwater captured by another watercourse.

[melmerby]

I rate Durham viaduct for its' integration into the old city and the view it affords of this architectural gem.

 

 

Before massive mechanisation made so much in civil enginering easier to accomplish, temporarily damming rivers to give enough water depth to do such things was a commonplace.

 

Or building temporary canals and filling them in afterwards. Certainly in other countries - I don't know anywhere in the UK offhand, maybe somebody will suggest one.

 

Keith

[Pinkmouse]

The Clapper Lane humpback bridge in Staplehurst between Tonbridge and Ashford. Before it was altered in the early 80's it had a very unforgiving profile, a killer for cars and vans, but smashing for "grabbing air" if you got the approach just right on your pushbike!

[boogaloo]

Surprised no one so far has chosen Ribblehead !

 

 

When I first saw this magnificant structure, seemingly forced out of the ground in one of the bleakest and most inhospitable places in the country, I stood in awe. Most people know about this viaduct and therefore it may be overlooked. It's not the longest or tallest but as a boy of 9 stood there, with his father and a Box Brownie camera, in November with bracing winds waiting for a steam train to punch through the mists into view and take his first 'proper' photograph. It was one of the most exciting moments of my life at the time, oh, and coldest.

 

Boogy

 

 

 

 

(This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. - Original Picture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ribblehead_Viaduct_in_North_Yorkshire.jpg)

[Oldddudders]

The Clapper Lane humpback bridge in Staplehurst between Tonbridge and Ashford. Before it was altered in the early 80's it had a very unforgiving profile, a killer for cars and vans, but smashing for "grabbing air" if you got the approach just right on your pushbike!

Clapper Lane! I'm sure we used to visit a feed merchant there for the horses' victuals. There was a riding stables there as well, and one of the ladies who worked there was in my pub-quiz team here in France in August this year. As for the programme to renew those bridge saddles in the 80s, I was on-call one Sunday morning when Control rang to say the concrete - which had been poured the evening before - hadn't gone off fast enough, and trains were being diverted via Maidstone East. Monday morning I was up the stairs to the Divisional Civil Engineer's office two at a time, so I could shake Fred, the bridge engineer, warmly by the throat! He (somewhat smaller than me!) was all contrition, explained about cracking cubes of the mix etc. A few weeks later, I was on-call again, and on the Sunday morning - guess what? Monday saw another "full and frank" discussion! Doh!

[mikemeg]

When I first saw this magnificant structure, seemingly forced out of the ground in one of the bleakest and most inhospitable places in the country, I stood in awe. Most people know about this viaduct and therefore it may be overlooked. It's not the longest or tallest but as a boy of 9 stood there, with his father and a Box Brownie camera, in November with bracing winds waiting for a steam train to punch through the mists into view and take his first 'proper' photograph. It was one of the most exciting moments of my life at the time, oh, and coldest.

 

Boogy

 

 

And that is some photograph.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[Pinkmouse]

Clapper Lane! I'm sure we used to visit a feed merchant there for the horses' victuals. There was a riding stables there as well...

 

There were a couple of stables, one right by the bottom of the bridge, but I don't remember a feed merchants. Still, at least I now have someone to blame for ruining my childhood!

[Jamie]

Nearly all bridges and viaducts here so far, and I agree that the Ouse viadict on the Brighton line is quite amazing, but I'm surprised that Dave (Max Stafford) has not mentioned the most graceful railway bridge in Scotland and perhaps one of the most beautiful in the UK - Ballochmyle viaduct on the G&SWR main line.

 

For 45156, quite difficult to do justice through the lens due to tree cover, but some shots from 2007.

Fantastic location too - to me the bridge is but a sideshow. Maybe it's the day job but I struggle to identify a 'favourite' civils construction. Ballochmyle then takes that spot by default!

[jeff mcghie]

This one.

 

Photo taken with appropriate protection blah blah.....

[nigelb]

if we are talking bridges how about the bridge to the north of Mansfield station ( i know the viaduct is older n more impressive ) but if you look carefully and think about it you will notice the inner ring road has to ...... divert for 2 lanes cos some pratt build the bridge wrong .

 

Nigel

[Wummyock]

Cannington Viaduct on the Lyme Regis branch for me.Bit biased it being very local for me as a kid/teen/early adulthood lol!

[Oldddudders]

There were a couple of stables, one right by the bottom of the bridge, but I don't remember a feed merchants. Still, at least I now have someone to blame for ruining my childhood!

Hey, I live abroad - I can cope! And in those days I lived in Cranbrook, anyway. Of course, not much more than a decade later they were all chopped and changed again in connection with the Eurostar route clearance programme, which was project managed by another Ian - who lived in Pinnock's Lane, Staplehurst!

[Gwiwer]

Cannington Viaduct on the Lyme Regis branch for me.Bit biased it being very local for me as a kid/teen/early adulthood lol!

 

That is certainly an unusual one. Given the fact that it almost fell down when new and has had a jack arch and a droop at one end ever since it's distinctive and in a quite pretty setting as well. Very modellable. You could even put Combpyne station right at one end of it on a modest "plank"!

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Has Crimple Viaduct south of Harrogate been mentioned?

[45156]

For 45156, quite difficult to do justice through the lens due to tree cover, but some shots from 2007.

Thanks for those Jamie - lovely photos there of a quite remarkable structure that is all too often overlooked due to its location, and the fact that it's not on a major route (the Sou' West mainline having been emasculated over the years).

 

ISTR that you posted some pics of the Newmilns viaduct, which though not the most impressive in the world, is nonetheless quite interesting as it cuts the town green in two. It's a shame that the Loudoun Hill viaduct is gone, as that WAS impressive even though it was quite small by Ribblehead standards.

[Peter Bedding]

Not remotely glamorous, I'm afraid, just an evocative every day view, and reminder of O2s, and just about remembered A1x, and pre-grouping carriages where one could be guaranteed a whole compartment to oneself. (And probably the whole carriage). I got one last trip on this line, in 1956, not long before closure.

 

 

Newport Quay behind my left shoulder, Coppins Bridge round to the right.

 

 

PB

[55017]

Stamford Bridge Viaduct on the old York - Beveley line takes some beating...

[silverlink]

You're all wrong cos its the gents toilet at Levisham station on NYMR no roof but lots of HOT WATER !!!

Cheers

Ian H

[TheDukeOfWellingtons]

Hmm, no mention of depots here. I would have to cast a vote for Laira depot, a massively exciting edifice from my childhood holidays, nothing like the depots around home in Yorkshire. Brilliant white and curvy!! And full of hydraulics.