Ballingham Railway Bridge (also known as Fawley Viaduct [1] ) was a railway bridge over the River Wye, built by the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway. It was built in 1855 and was closed and dismantled in 1965. The bridge was located just south of Ballingham railway station
Construction of the railway started in 1851, but it didn't open until 1855, due to the complexity and cost of building four river bridges and four tunnels. The railway was worked from the start by the Great Western Railway and was converted to mixed-gauge in 1866 and later to standard gauge. The bridge had five masonry piers, which originally carried six timber spans. The timber spans were later replaced with plate girders. The line was closed in 1965, as part of the Beeching cuts, and the spans were removed from the bridge [2]
The masonry piers remain in place. A riverside right-of-way runs upstream from Hoarwithy Bridge to the remains of Ballingham Railway Bridge, where it swings away from the river to meet the Ballingham to Carey Road. [2]
The Royal Albert Bridge is a railway bridge which spans the River Tamar in England between Plymouth, Devon and Saltash, Cornwall. Its unique design consists of two 455-foot (138.7 m) lenticular iron trusses 100 feet (30.5 m) above the water, with conventional plate-girder approach spans. This gives it a total length of 2,187.5 feet (666.8 m). It carries the Cornish Main Line railway in and out of Cornwall. It is adjacent to the Tamar Bridge which opened in 1962 to carry the A38 road.
The Severn Railway Bridge was a bridge carrying the railway across the River Severn between Sharpness and Lydney in Gloucestershire, England. It was built in the 1870s by the Severn Bridge Railway Company, primarily to carry coal from the Forest of Dean to the docks at Sharpness; it was the furthest-downstream bridge over the Severn until the opening of the Severn road bridge in 1966. When the company got into financial difficulties in 1893, it was taken over jointly by the Great Western Railway and the Midland Railway companies. The bridge continued to be used for freight and passenger services until 1960, and saw temporary extra traffic on the occasions that the Severn Tunnel was closed for engineering work.
The Bristol and Gloucester Railway was a railway company opened in 1844 to run services between Bristol and Gloucester. It was built on the 7 ftBrunel gauge, but it was acquired in 1845 by the 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge Midland Railway, which also acquired the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway at the same time.
Hereford railway station serves the city of Hereford, England. Managed by Transport for Wales, it lies on the Welsh Marches Line between Leominster and Abergavenny, is the western terminus of the Cotswold Line and also has an hourly West Midlands Trains service from Birmingham New Street. The station has four platforms for passenger trains and two additional relief lines for goods services.
Ballingham is a small village of about 140 people, increasing to 181 at the 2011 Census in Herefordshire, England, situated in a loop of the River Wye, between Hereford and Ross-on-Wye.
The Cornwall Railway company constructed a railway line between Plymouth and Truro in the United Kingdom, opening in 1859, and extended it to Falmouth in 1863. The topography of Cornwall is such that the route, which is generally east–west, cuts across numerous deep river valleys that generally run north–south. At the time of construction of the line, money was in short supply due to the collapse in confidence following the railway mania, and the company sought ways of reducing expenditure.
The Landore viaduct is a railway viaduct over the Swansea valley and the River Tawe at Landore in south Wales. It provides a link between Swansea city center and the West Wales Line to the South Wales Main Line. The valley crossing provides a panoramic view of Landore, Kilvey Hill, the Liberty Stadium and the Swansea Enterprise Park.
The Loughor railway viaduct carries the West Wales Line across the River Loughor. It is adjacent, and runs parallel to, the Loughor road bridge. The 1880 viaduct was granted Grade II listed building status. Before it was demolished in early 2013, the viaduct was the last remaining timber viaduct designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
The Wye Valley Railway was a standard gauge railway that ran for nearly 15 miles (24 km) along the Lower Wye Valley between the towns of Chepstow and Monmouth, crossing several times between Wales and England. Opened on 1 November 1876, it was leased to, and worked by, the Great Western Railway (GWR), before being fully absorbed by the GWR in 1905.
The Bullo Pill Railway was an early British railway, completed in 1810 to carry coal mined in the Forest of Dean Coalfield to a port on the River Severn near Newnham, Gloucestershire. It was later converted to a broad gauge steam line by the Great Western Railway, and was closed in the 1960s.
The Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway, was a railway which ran for 22+1⁄2 miles (36.2 km) linking Hereford and Gloucester, England, via Ross-on-Wye. It was opened on 1 June 1855 as a 7 ft 1⁄4 in broad gauge line, it was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway in 1862. In 1869 the railway was converted to 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in standard gauge. The railway was closed to passengers on 2 November 1964, freight services between Ross-on-Wye railway station and Grange Court railway station continued on until 1 November 1965.
The Coleford, Monmouth, Usk & Pontypool Railway (CMU&PR) was a standard gauge railway of 16 miles (26 km) which ran from Monmouth to Little Mill, near Pontypool in Monmouthshire, Wales. It was intended to convey the mineral products of the Forest of Dean to the ironworks of South Wales, by connecting to the Newport, Abergavenny and Hereford Railway at Little Mill Junction. The NAHR made the onward connection over its Taff Vale Extension line. The CMU&PR intended to acquire the Monmouth Railway, actually a horse-operated plateway, and convert it to locomotive operation.
The Ross and Monmouth Railway was a standard gauge railway of 13 miles (21 km) which ran between Ross-on-Wye, in Herefordshire, England and Monmouth, Wales.
The Tintern Wireworks Branch was a short branch line on the Wye Valley Railway, crossing the River Wye between Monmouthshire, Wales, and Gloucestershire, England. It was completed in 1874 and opened on 1 November 1876; the reason for the delay was that the Wye Valley Railway, into which the branch line fed, was not completed until the latter date. It closed in 1935 when the rails buckled in the heat of the summer. The bridge that carried the line over the Wye, known as the Tintern Wireworks Bridge or Old Tramway Bridge, is now used as a footpath, but in 2022 is being temporarily closed for repair.
The Severn Bridge Railway was a railway company which constructed a railway from Lydney to Sharpness in Gloucestershire, England. It was intended chiefly to give access for minerals in the Forest of Dean to Sharpness Docks, and the company built a long bridge, 1,387 yards (1,268 m) in length, over the River Severn. The line opened in 1879.
Ross-on-Wye railway station is a former junction railway station on the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway constructed just to the north of the Herefordshire town of Ross-on-Wye. It was the terminus of the Ross and Monmouth Railway which joined the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway just south of the station.
Grange Court railway station was a junction station on the South Wales Railway in Gloucestershire where it met the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway.
Ballingham railway station is a disused stone built railway station that served the villages of Ballingham and Carey in Herefordshire on the Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway. It was situated between Ballingham Railway Bridge and Ballingham Tunnel, two of the most substantial structures on the Great Western Railway line which linked Ross-on-Wye and Hereford. Originally proposed by the owner of Ballingham Court the station had a limited service and was never well used. It closed, along with the line, on 2 November 1964.
The Monmouth Viaduct or Chippenham Meadow Viaduct is a 20-arch 183m red sandstone viaduct, with two 23m steel lattice-girder spans over the river. It carried the Coleford, Monmouth, Usk & Pontypool Railway line across the River Wye at Monmouth, Wales. A further river crossing by the Ross and Monmouth Railway was later built nearby.
The Surtees Rail Bridge is a rail bridge on the Tees Valley Line over the River Tees in the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. The bridge is south of Stockton-on-Tees town centre and just north of the adjacent Surtees Bridge which carries the A66 road. The bridge is built on the site of a series of Tees Bridges alternating between two adjacent crossing sites.