Is there a name for this element commonly found on Victorian railway bridges?

[BRX]

Outlined in the images below is a feature that's almost always present in Victorian bridges - most specifically girder type bridges transitioning to a viaduct either side.

It's the top part of what is usually a slightly projecting pier/pilaster built onto the side of the bridge abutment. It's essentially decorative, providing a visual stop-end to the bridge/viaduct junction and usually hiding the end of the girder which sits on a bearing just behind it. They usually look very substantial from the front but this top part, the part that sits above the level of the track is often quite slim front-to-back. Sometimes they have a kind of L-shape in plan, forming a sort of pocket behind that the girder end sits in.

Although they seem to have almost always been part of the original design, actually not many of them survive in their original form, presumably because with the passage of time they become seen as serving no useful purpose and a maintenance headache. So very often they are either removed completely or simplified to blank stubs of brickwork.

But do they have a proper name? What would you call them? Abutment parapets? Abutment pilaster-tops?

I'm looking for a term that describes specifically that top part, not the whole pier from ground level up. The bit I've outlined in red in all the images below.





It's

 

[civ-eng-jim]

I've always known them as Pilasters

 

[BRX]

I've always known them as Pilasters

Would you use that to describe specifically that top part, or would it include the bit below them, down to ground level?

 

[swt_passenger]

As I understood it, a pillar is always a free standing column. A pilaster is a vertical feature (usually flat?), built ‘out of‘ a wall or abutment, so could be described as proud of the background, while being fully secured into it.

I don’t think any of the photos show pillars, they’re more correctly pilasters. Which leaves the question of the top section having a specific name unanswered, unfortunately.

Is the top decorative section a “capital”?

 

[BRX]

As I understood it, a pillar is always a free standing column. A pilaster is a vertical feature (usually flat?), built ‘out of‘ a wall or abutment, so could be described as proud of the background, while being fully secured into it.

I don’t think any of the photos show pillars, they’re more correctly pilasters. Which leaves the question of the top section having a specific name unanswered, unfortunately.

Is the top decorative section a “capital”?

Certainly "capital" can be used to describe the top of a column or pilaster but I'd expect there to be something sitting on top of it.

"Crown" might be a better term here.

 

[stuving]

A new term for me that came up only today is ballast wall, for something built immediately next to the bridge and above a wing wall. In functional terms I think it's the bit being discussed here. The bridge parapet (or just the lower solid part if there is a railing above) stops ballast dropping on the heads of people walking below. The ballast wall, I presume, does the same for the railway formation next to the bridge, where ballast could come over the top of the wing wall.

In some of those examples, where there is a viaduct rather than an embankment continuing the bridge, that has a parapet wall so a separate ballast wall doesn't exist (or doesn't need a separate name). The bit in question can then be seen as a decorative flourish ending the viaduct, rather than a bit of the bridge..

Stylistically, it might well be called something else.

 

[civ-eng-jim]

Would you use that to describe specifically that top part, or would it include the bit below them, down to ground level?

From Network Rail's technical user manual for masonry repairs:




Not a bridge engineer but I would say they serve more purpose curtailing a brick parapet wall (which would others be a bit vulnerable if it just terminated without stitching into something more substantial)

On the steel girder bridges, it looks like it ensures there's no ballast spillage at the deck end.

 

[DelW]

A new term for me that came up only today is ballast wall, for something built immediately next to the bridge and above a wing wall. In functional terms I think it's the bit being discussed here. The bridge parapet (or just the lower solid part if there is a railing above) stops ballast dropping on the heads of people walking below. The ballast wall, I presume, does the same for the railway formation next to the bridge, where ballast could come over the top of the wing wall.

In some of those examples, where there is a viaduct rather than an embankment continuing the bridge, that has a parapet wall so a separate ballast wall doesn't exist (or doesn't need a separate name). The bit in question can then be seen as a decorative flourish ending the viaduct, rather than a bit of the bridge..

Stylistically, it might well be called something else.

The term "ballast wall" isn't specific to railway bridges. It's used on road bridges for an upstand wall behind the bearing shelf, that retains the backfill behind the abutment. There's often a return wall across the end of the bearing shelf, but unlike in the masonry abutments pictured, it doesn't extend above deck level.

I think that the features noted by the OP are mainly decorative, but they might offer a degree of protection to the end of the main girder from the possibility of a derailed wagon striking it. In Victorian times that might have been a common enough occurrence to warrant protective measures.

 

[Acathater]

I always thought they were capstones
They're there to stop pooling water ingressing into the brickwork/masonry