Keadby Bridge | |
|---|---|
 Keadby Bridge | |
| Coordinates | 53°35′09″N0°43′52″W / 53.5857°N 0.7311°W |
| Crosses | River Trent |
| Other name(s) | King George V Bridge |
| Heritage status | Grade II listed structure |
| Characteristics | |
| Total length | 548 feet (167 m) |
| Longest span | 150 feet (46 m) |
| History | |
| Opened | 1916 |
| Location | |
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Keadby Bridge, more formally known as the King George V Bridge, crosses the River Trent near Althorpe and Keadby in Lincolnshire, England. It was designed by Alfred Charles Gardner FRSE MIME. [1]
The Scherzer rolling lift bridge carries both road and rail traffic across the River Trent. It was built between 1912 and 1916 by the Great Central Railway to replace a previous swing bridge built by the South Yorkshire Railway and opened in 1864. [2] It carries a double track railway line on the southern side, and the two-lane, single carriageway A18 road on the north side.
The Lincolnshire Echo reported that the first passenger train to cross the new bridge left Althorpe Station at 10:35am on 21 May 1916. The train was driven by Herbert Duke of Mexborough and, on the invitation of Sir Sam Fay, Joshua Slowen of Barnetby, who had driven the first passenger train across the old bridge, rode on the engine. [3]
Its 50-metre (163 ft) electrically powered bascule (lifting span) was one of the first of its type in Britain and, when built, was the largest in Europe. Designed by James Ball and C A Rowlandson and built by contractors Sir William Arrol & Co., it has three main spans and two approach spans. The eastern main span was the one that lifted. The Scherzer bascule rolled and rotated on counterbalance. It was electrically powered, originally by a large storage battery fed by petrol-driven generators housed in the engine room beneath the east approach span. [4] This was later modified to mains electricity.
The bridge was controlled from a wooden signal cabin, mounted by the north-east side of the lifting (east) span. The cabin was equipped with a 28-lever frame of British Pneumatic Railway Signal Company design.
The bridge has not been lifted since 1956. In 1960, it was widened and the headroom increased, and the bascule was fixed in position. [5] At the same time, the signal cabin was removed from the bridge structure and the tracks on the railway were fixed in place.
A bascule bridge is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances a span, or leaf, throughout its upward swing to provide clearance for boat traffic. It may be single- or double-leafed.
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Althorpe is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Keadby with Althorpe, in the North Lincolnshire district, in the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire, England. It is four miles (6 km) west of Scunthorpe and the same distance south-east of Crowle, on the A18 road.
Althorpe railway station serves the village of Althorpe in North Lincolnshire, England. The station is also very close to the villages of Keadby, Gunness and Burringham.
Keadby is a small village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Keadby with Althorpe, in the North Lincolnshire district, in the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated just off the A18, west of Scunthorpe, and on the west bank of the River Trent. The civil parish of Keadby with Althorpe had a population at the 2011 census of 1,930.
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The Stainforth and Keadby Canal is a navigable canal in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, England. It connects the River Don Navigation at Bramwith to the River Trent at Keadby, by way of Stainforth, Thorne and Ealand, near Crowle. It opened in 1802, passed into the control of the River Don Navigation in 1849, and within a year was controlled by the first of several railway companies. It became part of the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation, an attempt to remove several canals from railway control, in 1895. There were plans to upgrade it to take larger barges and to improve the port facilities at Keadby, but the completion of the New Junction Canal in 1905 made this unnecessary, as Goole could easily be reached and was already a thriving port.
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The original Keadby railway station was the easternmost terminus of the South Yorkshire Railway. The railway, which was extended from Thorne and opened in September 1859 was built without an Act of Parliament, as the railway company owned the canal alongside which they built the line.
Gunness is a village and civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England. It is situated 3 miles (5 km) west from Scunthorpe, and on the east bank of the River Trent. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 2,462.
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The River Torne is a river in the north of England, which flows through the counties of South Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. It rises at the Upper Lake at Sandbeck Hall, in Maltby in South Yorkshire, and empties into the River Trent at Keadby pumping station. Much of the channel is engineered, as it plays a significant role in the drainage of Hatfield Chase, which it crosses.
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