German Lane Bridges.

[vidal]

On a rather bleary walk today I crossed under the WCML at Charnock Richard - slightly south of Euxton Balshaw Lane. The line is quad tracked with quite a gap between the Fast and the Slow lines. It is elevated on an embankment to cross the River Yarrow. Google Map View.


I noted that on the fast lines it appears that the bridge abutments are of a size that would allow a further two tracks as seen in the attached photo. Were there ever 4 tracks on this span - there's nothing I can see on the historical maps from the National Library of Scotland map site.

James

 

[30907]

I wondercif the original intention was to add 2 tracks on the Eastern side, but for whatever reason the LNW went for the current arrangement.

 

[Acathater]

On a rather bleary walk today I crossed under the WCML at Charnock Richard - slightly south of Euxton Balshaw Lane. The line is quad tracked with quite a gap between the Fast and the Slow lines. It is elevated on an embankment to cross the River Yarrow. Google Map View.


I noted that on the fast lines it appears that the bridge abutments are of a size that would allow a further two tracks as seen in the attached photo. Were there ever 4 tracks on this span - there's nothing I can see on the historical maps from the National Library of Scotland map site.

James

Just a guess, but that concrete bridge is clearly not the original. I'd suggest that it was built on the "spare" abutments, then the original bridge demolished and new abutments built, then the replacement slid across. If you look there are differences in the two sets of abutments which suggest they were built independently of each other.

 

[AndrewE]

Just a guess, but that concrete bridge is clearly not the original. I'd suggest that it was built on the "spare" abutments, then the original bridge demolished and new abutments built, then the replacement slid across. If you look there are differences in the two sets of abutments which suggest they were built independently of each other.

That is a massive investment for building a new span, I'm sure that trestles would have been used instead. I'm going to search the NLS maps to see if I can find if the slow/freight lines were ever duplicated.