Black Bridge, Nuneham: southern abutment failure

[whole diary]

[ellendune]

New parts, stringers, cross members may be being fabricated to match the new bearings,

Yes I would guess already designed and with the fabricators for production. 


I also notice they have scaffolded the central support so perhaps the central bearings are being given some attention as well. 

[CyclingSid]

Latest sitrep: https://twitter.com/PaulCliftonBBC/status/1659603035214037004?cxt=HHwWmIC-4dyKjIguAAAA

[stuving]

A further update here. The video was obviously filmed a few days ago, but the picture in the web page is newer:

[ChrisB]

That link doesn't work - it seems to have some '%' signs embedded.

[stuving]

That link doesn't work - it seems to have some '%' signs embedded.

Sorry - my mistake.

A note about dates: Stuart Calvert talks about the "1856 timber structure" - but the original timber bridge was built in 1843, and by inference its abutment was reused in 1856 and 1916 for the two iron bridges. The GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) magazine (posted earlier) only said it was "constructed under the Oxford Railway Act, 1843", and was "replaced in 1849-50". So who's right? I've been looking for old newspapers...

I have just found a piece in the Berkshire Chronicle of 11 November 1843 saying that the first Nuneham bridge started building "on Saturday, and will be completed in about five weeks." As the 11th was a Saturday, that start date was the 4th. I can't find completion recorded, but the line was opened on Wednesday June 12th 1844, and the "journey is performed in something under two hours and a half" (London-Oxford).

For the second bridge, there is a detailed report (Oxford Journal Saturday 20 September 1856) of the inquest into Henry Collett's death by drowning in the Thames. He was a labourer working on the new Nuneham bridge, and "late of Appleford", and several workmates gave evidence. He was last seen alive on Tuesday 9th September, and found under the new bridge on Monday 15th. We don't know from that how long the work took before and after, but those Victorians would likely not need all of a year for that job.

There was another inquest, into the death of a young lad working on the new bridge at Appleford, and that happened in July 1856. So it appears both bridges were rebuilt in wrought iron at the same time. If they were built the same way, at the same time, in the same river, it is pretty likely they both needed replacement together, and of course if the line has to be closed you'd rather do both within one closure.

[ellendune]

Another update video from Network Rail via Twitter

[Electric train]

That link doesn't work - it seems to have some '%' signs embedded.

Sorry - my mistake.

A note about dates: Stuart Calvert talks about the "1856 timber structure" - but the original timber bridge was built in 1843, and by inference its abutment was reused in 1856 and 1916 for the two iron bridges. The GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) magazine (posted earlier) only said it was "constructed under the Oxford Railway Act, 1843", and was "replaced in 1849-50". So who's right? I've been looking for old newspapers...

I have just found a piece in the Berkshire Chronicle of 11 November 1843 saying that the first Nuneham bridge started building "on Saturday, and will be completed in about five weeks." As the 11th was a Saturday, that start date was the 4th. I can't find completion recorded, but the line was opened on Wednesday June 12th 1844, and the "journey is performed in something under two hours and a half" (London-Oxford).

For the second bridge, there is a detailed report (Oxford Journal Saturday 20 September 1856) of the inquest into Henry Collett's death by drowning in the Thames. He was a labourer working on the new Nuneham bridge, and "late of Appleford", and several workmates gave evidence. He was last seen alive on Tuesday 9th September, and found under the new bridge on Monday 15th. We don't know from that how long the work took before and after, but those Victorians would likely not need all of a year for that job.

There was another inquest, into the death of a young lad working on the new bridge at Appleford, and that happened in July 1856. So it appears both bridges were rebuilt in wrought iron at the same time. If they were built the same way, at the same time, in the same river, it is pretty likely they both needed replacement together, and of course if the line has to be closed you'd rather do both within one closure.

Stuart Calvert date reference is likely to be based on the record drawings held by Network Rail. 

[ellendune]

And more from Paul Clifton of the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) on Twitter

[Mark A]

That link doesn't work - it seems to have some '%' signs embedded.

Sorry - my mistake.

A note about dates: Stuart Calvert talks about the "1856 timber structure"

I've lost track of the video that showed a pile of timber - Stuart Calvert didn't give any context for where they found it.

Was it on the GW^▸ (Great Western) Paddington to Bristol line that in some places, embankments were constrained by burying  a pair of timbers at either edge, linked to one another by chains?

At Midford on the S&D^▸ (Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway) on the down side of the line, a trench was dug for services a few years ago, and I was surprised to see that by chance they excavators had chosen exactly the line to encounter an *enormous* buried squared-off bault of timber at the point where the infrastructure transitioned from viaduct to embankment. I wish I'd taken a photo. I think it was simply reburied.

And of course, wooden viaducts replaced by embankments were sometimes simply buried, sometimes with unintended consequences. Contractors encountered one of those at the east end of Shakespeare Cliff tunnel in Dover, Kent. Back in coffeeshopland, there's likely another lurking beneath the formation on the approach to Penzance, as that was built across the foreshore and carried on a wooden viaduct. And is there another buried one on the Falmouth branch?

Mark

[bradshaw]

Attached is a classic example. The 1857 original timber bridge on the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Weymouth line was simply covered over when the line was doubled in the 1880s.

Then in the late 1980s it was rebuilt again, this time to provide clearance for the western arm of the Dorchester bypass(A37). I was called in by Dorset County Museum and was shown the site, after the line reopened, there is still timber buried there.

British Rail kindly gave the Museum and myself copied of the photographs they had taken, one of which is seen here

[Electric train]

Attached is a classic example. The 1857 original timber bridge on the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) Weymouth line was simply covered over when the line was doubled in the 1880s.

Then in the late 1980s it was rebuilt again, this time to provide clearance for the western arm of the Dorchester bypass(A37). I was called in by Dorset County Museum and was shown the site, after the line reopened, there is still timber buried there.

British Rail kindly gave the Museum and myself copied of the photographs they had taken, one of which is seen here

A similar thing was done at Shakespeare Cliff near Dover, the original 1848 wooden trestles along the English Channel Beach these were encased was a chalk infill in 1927 when a new sea wall was built.  A storm in 2014 breached the concrete sea wall washing the chalk infill out.

There will be many other such "cover ups" on the network     

[paul7575]

Latest Network Rail summary on Twitter says that the viaduct is back in place and they’re reballasting etc:
https://twitter.com/networkrailwest/status/1665658184772599808

[paul7575]

In the second of the photos in the Twitter link, they are reinstating the deck plates, (that I assume were removed to make room for piling), does anyone know if the lines of domed heads showing are rivets, or if they are some sort of bolt or screw designed to look like rivets? 

Paul

[Mark A]

Think there's a couple of those fastenings lying spare on the deck and they may or may not be called 'Carriage bolts'.

Someone somewhere must have been with child to have the opportunity to clean all that steel back to bare metal and apply the appropriate surface coating system with a correctly coloured top coat - the structure being colloquially known as 'Black bridge', not 'Brown bridge'.

Mark

[paul7575]

Think there's a couple of those fastenings lying spare on the deck and they may or may not be called 'Carriage bolts'.

Mark

Ah, I’ve since found another possibility, specifically designed to replace rivets on bridges etc, called “tension control bolts”. They look very similar to the one you’ve pointed out in the photo, that I missed first time:

https://www.tcbolts.com/en/products/tcb-standard

Their website mentions a number of previous rail related contracts, half a million in the Forth Bridge for example:

https://www.tcbolts.com/en/projects/bridges/rivet-replacement

Paul