Reconstruction of Bordesley Viaduct

GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton
GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

An Account of the Works on the Birmingham Extension of the Birmingham and Oxford Junction Railway December 1851

By CHRISTOPHER BAGOT LANE Assoc. Inst. C.E.

The spandrill walls, next the face walls, were built with a batter of 1 in 10 inwards, and two iron tie rods were introduced at the level of the springing of the outside spandrill arches, so as to take the thrust from the face walls. The tie rods were of scrap iron, each 2 inches by 6 inch in section, keyed at each end through iron plates about 10 inches square, one being built into the face wall, and the other being flush with the inner side of the battered spandrill.

Corbels of heading bricks were carried out from the backs of the arches in the range of the spandrill walls, of the same width with them, and connected by a brick beam from arch to arch, for stiffening and equalizing the pressure from end to end of the viaduct.*

* This mode of construction was suggested by something very analogous in Blackfriars Bridge, and its useful effect may be judged of, from the comparatively small amount of the settlement of the arches.

Pieces of hoop iron, each about 3 feet long, were laid diagonally across the bed joints of the arches into which the corbels were bonded; another course of' brickwork was then added, and a second row of hoop iron was laid in the reverse position. Two rows of hoop iron, 12 inches apart, at right angles to each other, were also inserted at the tops of the pillars of the piers.

The settlement of the arches was taken by a spirit-level from three nails, which were driven into each face of the arch before the centres were slacked; ,one of the nails was placed in the crown of the arch, and the two others at 12 feet on each side. The levels were taken before the centres were slacked, and again when the laggings had been for a considerable time quite clear of the soffit.

Graham Laucht

Other information

In addition to the above extract by Christopher Bagot Lane, Graham has provided the following information:

Sadly access to the original 1849 drawings is limited as I believe they were originally held at Railtrack's Birmingham office, were converted to microfiche and now live near York in an impenetrable Network Rail archive. The following is I believe the extent of that collection:

Graham Laucht continues 'thankfully a small number of the original drawings once held by the British Rail Residuary Board reside at Kew though they are now very fragile and access may be limited. Firstly drawing GWR 62714 from the Rail 39/10 bundle at TNA Kew, this is a reduction taken from the original scan which occupies the thick end of 18Mb thus the smaller attachment. I have also attached a smaller scrap showing the detail.

You will see that on the original B&OJ line to Curzon Street Brunel engineered the bridges to be largely hollow structures with the area above the jack arches infilled with excavation rubble and then "layered" over with an 18" thick masonry slab no doubt running between the spandrel walls. There is suggestion in a report by Baggot Lane concerning the original Bordesley construction that wrought iron tie rods also ran across between the spandrel walls though the ends of which may be beneath the outer brick skin as nothing is visible today. Assuming of course that the design of the Bordesley Viaduct was the same on the Birmingham Extension railway to Snow Hill.

It is interesting to note that one of the Rail 39/10 series (GWR 11500) shows the Duddeston viaduct side elevation drawn in pencil beneath the Bordesley elevation which was drawn in ink and wash. Though this collection is small it is very rich in detail particularly of the skewed abutments around Liverpool Street.

In many ways Duddeston was far more varied and interesting in construction particularly as it crossed some pretty difficult terrain enroute to its final frustrated 'destination' just short of the old Curzon Street site. See the schematic diagram below (gwrbg2720) for more infomation'.

Graham Laucht