Staines Railway Bridge | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 51°25′50″N0°30′40″W / 51.4306°N 0.5112°W |
Carries | Waterloo to Reading line |
Crosses | River Thames |
Locale | Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey |
Maintained by | Network Rail |
Characteristics | |
Material | Cast iron and wrought iron |
No. of spans | 3 |
Piers in water | 6 (two groups of three) |
Clearance below | 6.4 m (21 ft) [1] |
History | |
Designer | John Gardner |
Opened | 1856 |
Location | |
Staines Railway Bridge is a railway viaduct in Staines-upon-Thames, Surrey, around 17 miles (28 kilometres) west of central London. It carries the Waterloo to Reading line across the Thames. Immediately to the east is Thames Street bridge, which carries the railway over the B376 and the Thames Path.
An act of parliament was granted in 1853, authorising the Staines, Wokingham and Woking railway (SWWR) to build a line between Staines and Wokingham railway stations. Construction of the Staines Railway Bridge, across the River Thames, was completed in 1856. The SWWR merged with the London and South Western Railway in 1878. [2] [3] The line across the viaduct was electrified in 1937. [4]
Staines Railway Bridge was designed by John Gardner and cost £10,000 to build. It is constructed of wrought iron girders supported on six cast iron pillars, embedded in the river bed. The main span is 30 m (88 ft 6 in) wide and the total length of the bridge is 85.24 m (279 ft 8 in). [5] It is 35 mi 3 furlongs (57 km) upstream of London Bridge. [6]
During the Second World War, the line was used to transport supplies to Portsmouth Naval Base and the bridge was guarded by a dedicated army platoon of around 25 soldiers. [7] In 1995, the viaduct was painted bright yellow in a £15,000 experimental project to prevent swans from flying into it. [8]
The adjacent Thames Street bridge, which carries the railway over the B376 and the Thames Path, was named in 2021 as one of the country's ten railway bridges most likely to be struck by vehicles. [9] [10]
Media related to Staines Railway Bridge at Wikimedia Commons
Staines-upon-Thames is a market town in northwest Surrey, England, around 17 miles west of central London. It is in the Borough of Spelthorne, at the confluence of the River Thames and Colne. Historically part of Middlesex, the town was transferred to Surrey in 1965. Staines is close to Heathrow Airport and is linked to the national motorway network by the M25 and M3.
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.
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Staines Bridge is a road bridge running in a south-west to north-east direction across the River Thames in Surrey. It is on the modern A308 road and links the boroughs of Spelthorne and Runnymede at Staines-upon-Thames and Egham Hythe. The bridge is Grade II listed.
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Penton Hook Lock is the sixth lowest lock of forty four on the non-tidal reaches of the River Thames in England. It faces an island which was until its construction a pronounced meander and is on the site of its seasonal cutoff. It is against the left bank marking the church parish medieval border of Laleham and Staines upon Thames in Surrey for many centuries. Until 1965 their county was Middlesex. At 266 ft (81 m) it is the third longest lock on the river.
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