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GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Bordesley Station: gwrbg2273

Photograph  showing one of three steel plate girders used in the reconstruction of the Coventry Road Bridge

Photograph showing one of three steel plate girders used in the reconstruction of the Coventry Road Bridge. Below is an extract from Great Western Railway Magazine Volume XXIII, No 5 May 1911 - Reconstruction of Coventry Road Bridge.

Mr CW Cliff of the Divisional Engineer's Office, Wolverhampton, has furnished the photograph reproduced which was taken during the reconstruction of Coventry Road Bridge carrying the London to Birmingham main line, a work which has just been completed in connection with the Bordesley and Birmingham widening. The girders of the old bridge were of the balloon-headed hog-back kind, a type fast disappearing. The new steel girders are of the following lengths; centre girder 76 feet, outside girders 76 feet 8 inches and 75 feet 4 inches. The clear span of the bridge between abutments is 67 feet. The bridge was erected in two Sunday occupations starting at 12 O'clock midnight Saturday. On the first Sunday the old up bay of the bridge was taken out and the new bay placed in its temporary position alongside the old down main line and the following week this portion of the bridge was riveted up. On the following Sunday the down-bay was demolished and the new up bay slued into its permanent position and the new down bay erected. Much of the riveting was done during the night, when the electric current was cut off from the trolley wires of the Birmingham Tramway Co., which wires were protected from damage throughout the work by insulated wire netting stretched over them and carried from special pull-off poles erected for the occasion. Powerful electric arc lights erected upon the bridge and incandescent lamps underneath enabled the work to be proceeded with during the night. The whole of the work was completed in four weeks from the time of commencement and was carried out under the supervision of the Divisional Engineer, Mr WT Dunsdon, Wolverhampton. The steelwork was supplied by the Horsehay Co.

Robert Ferris

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