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Croft Viaduct

This article is about Tees Railway Bridge. Not to be confused with Tees railway viaduct.

Croft Viaduct
A train crossing a viaduct surrounded by trees
Coordinates54°28′39″N 1°33′09″W / 54.4774°N 1.5526°W / 54.4774; -1.5526
OS grid referenceNZ290092
CarriesEast Coast Main Line
CrossesRiver Tees
LocaleCroft-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England
Other name(s)Tees Railway Bridge
OwnerNetwork Rail
Characteristics
Total length7 chains (460 ft; 140 m)
No. of spans4
Rail characteristics
No. of tracks2
Track gauge1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge
ElectrifiedOverhead catenary (1990s)
History
Construction start1837
Opened1841
Location
Map

Croft Viaduct is a railway bridge carrying the East Coast Main Line between Northallerton and Darlington in Northern England. The viaduct crosses the River Tees, the border between North Yorkshire and County Durham. Although it was an early example of a stone viaduct in the railway system, it is not the first true railway viaduct, however, it was the first railway viaduct in the United Kingdom to have been built with an oblique arch (or skew-arch). It was grade II listed in 1988, and had overhead line equipment installed in the early 1990s.

History

The viaduct was designed by Henry Welsh, and built by Deas and Hogg,[note 1] for the Great North of England Railway (GNER) between 1837 and 1840, costing £14,481 (equivalent to £1,663,000 in 2023).[2][3][4] Digging for the foundations started on 25 November 1837, and the formation of the line northwards from the viaduct would go on to use the trackbed of the old Croft branch of the Stockton & Darlington Railway.[5] The trackbed was later purchased by the Great North of England Railway.[6] The viaduct is 471 feet (144 m) long, (7 chains (460 ft; 140 m) according to Trackmaps[7]), 49 feet (15 m) above the water of the River Tees, and each of the four arches is 45 feet (14 m) across, (59 feet (18 m) if the 49 degree skew of the arches is taken into consideration).[8][9] The height of the viaduct from the normal water level to the top of the stone parapets is 58 feet (18 m) and the width of the bridge is 27 feet (8.2 m).[10]

Croft Viaduct crosses the River Tees about 0.5 miles (0.8 km) east of Croft Bridge (which carries the A167), and curves slightly to the south east.[11] The viaduct is the most significant engineering structure built on the section of line between York and Darlington, and was opened to traffic in 1841.[12]

During construction, the building of the viaduct was beset by labour disputes, with the engineer being authorised to hire more men to complete the building phase at the contractors' expense.[13] It is one of the oldest viaducts on the railway network, and was the first railway viaduct in the United Kingdom to be built with a skew-arch.[14][15] Apart from some re-inforced concrete, the viaduct is largely composed of the original stone; dressed ashlar cream sandstone, with late 20th century parapet railings.[16][17]

A tradition of newly-appointed bishops arriving into County Durham being presented with a falchion which slew the Sockburn Worm, is normally associated with the road bridge at Croft-on-Tees, which in railway terms, is 35 chains (2,300 ft; 700 m) upstream.[18] However, in 1860, Henry Montagu Villiers arrived by train, and so the locomotive was stopped on Croft Viaduct to allow the ceremony to take place.[19][20]

The viaduct is registered with Historic England as a grade II listed structure.[17] It had overhead line equipment installed in the early 1990s, with the first electric train north from York, reaching Edinburgh in June 1991. As Croft Viaduct was listed as Grade II in 1988, consent had to be sought from the local authority to alter the structure with the catenary.[21] Historic England list the name of the bridge as being "Tees Railway Bridge".[17]

The original Croft Branch of the Stockton & Darlington Railway had a proposal to cross the Tees to venture 1-mile (1.6 km) into Yorkshire, but the cost of building a bridge was found to have been prohibitive.[22] The Croft Branch was also further north (upstream) of the position of Croft Viaduct.[23]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Both the designer and the contractors are reported with different spellings of their names; Henry Welsh is also listed as "Henry Welch", and Deas sometimes as "Dees".[1]

References

  1. ^ Herapath, John, ed. (November 1837). "Railway Notices". The Railway Magazine. xxi. London: Wyld & Son: 379. OCLC 931658199.
  2. ^ Rennison & Barbey 1996, pp. 135–136.
  3. ^ Simmons, Jack; Biddle, Gordon (2003). The Oxford companion to British railway history from 1603 to the 1990s. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 47, 192. ISBN 0-1986-6238-6.
  4. ^ Hoole, Kenneth (1986). The North East (3 ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 94. ISBN 0-9465-3731-3.
  5. ^ "Disused Stations: Croft Station". disused-stations.org.uk. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  6. ^ Hardie 2019, p. 14.
  7. ^ Kelman, Leanne (2020). Railway Track Diagrams Book 2: Eastern. Frome: Trackmaps. 20. ISBN 978-1-9996271-3-3.
  8. ^ Rennison & Barbey 1996, p. 136.
  9. ^ "Genuki: Croft On Tees Parish information from Bulmers' 1890., Yorkshire (North Riding)". genuki.org.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
  10. ^ Tomlinson, William Weaver (1967) [1914]. Tomlinson's North Eastern Railway : Its rise and development. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 359. OCLC 872328861.
  11. ^ Tomlinson, William Weaver (1967) [1914]. Tomlinson's North Eastern Railway : Its rise and development. Newton Abbot: David & Charles. p. 295. OCLC 872328861.
  12. ^ Rennison & Barbey 1996, p. 135.
  13. ^ Hoole, Kenneth (1986). The North East (3 ed.). Newton Abbot: David & Charles. pp. 94–95. ISBN 0-9465-3731-3.
  14. ^ Betteney, Alan (2019). "Crossing the Tees" (PDF). teesarchaeology.com. Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society & Tees Archaeology. p. 15. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  15. ^ Maciver, P. S. (1885). The growth of the railway system : a lecture. London: Railway Review. p. 8. OCLC 1051487361.
  16. ^ Biddle, Gordon (2003). Britain's historic railway buildings: an Oxford gazetteer of structures and sites. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 409. ISBN 0198662475.
  17. ^ a b c Historic England. "Tees Railway Bridge (Grade II) (1299454)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
  18. ^ Whishaw, Francis (1837). Analysis of railways: consisting of a series of reports on the twelve hundred miles of projected railways in England and Wales, now before Parliament. London: J. Weale. p. 88. OCLC 14920595.
  19. ^ "Croft Railway Bridge". bridgesonthetyne.co.uk. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  20. ^ Lloyd, Chris (16 December 2009). "Mr Cheese spreads the word, but gets into a bit of a pickle". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  21. ^ "ECML: Electrification as it used to be". Rail Engineer. 27 November 2017. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  22. ^ Hardie 2019, pp. 8–9.
  23. ^ "Georeferenced Maps - Map images - National Library of Scotland". maps.nls.uk. Retrieved 25 June 2024. Use the slider on the bottom left (named "Change transparency of overlay") to toggle between old mapping and modern-day satellite imagery

Sources

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