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

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

I've always known them as Pilasters

civ-eng-jim said:

I've always known them as Pilasters

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

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”?

swt_passenger said:

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”?

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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.

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.

BRX said:

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

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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.

stuving said:

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.

Click to expand...

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.

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

civ-eng-jim said:

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

View attachment 213183


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.

Click to expand...

Thanks for this - having asked the same question elsewhere, there seems to be a strong consensus that "pilaster" is the correct term - at least according to current-day usage. This diagram confirms this.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Monday at 09:41 ==

stuving said:

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.

Click to expand...

I took the photo above last week - this is the site of the Lewes derailment where the trains are now running again but some works are continuing.

Here I'm guessing that what looks like a bit of a rickety construction - some timber boards supported by metal spikes driven into the embankment - is a kind of "ballast wall".

In this case there is no "pilaster" as such - the bridge deck I think is concrete and its parapet simply continues a bit beyond the top of the wing wall and does the job of retaining the ballast before the wooden planks take over.

BRX said:

In this case there is no "pilaster" as such - the bridge deck I think is concrete and its parapet simply continues a bit beyond the top of the wing wall and does the job of retaining the ballast before the wooden planks take over.

Click to expand...

It is also structural. Note the gap between the top of the abutment and the bottom of the span, so the "pilaster" part is actually supporting the beam. Most likely this concrete span replaced an older one that sat on the edges of the abutment.