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GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Bordesley Station: gwrbg2279

A view from the south end of Bordesley Station in 1929

A view from the south end of Bordesley Station in 1929. The station had two island platforms of similar length, but these were staggered, at each end one of the platforms terminated at a road bridge while the other spanned across it. At the southern end the relief island platform was supported on plate girders as it crossed over Sandy Lane and the Grand Union Canal in two separate spans, but under the main lines these two transport arteries had converged necessitating a single longer span to cross them together.

The civil engineering principles in the construction of steel railway bridges meant that the most economic bridge design was normally dependent upon the length of the span and this resulted in the application of some general rules. In a course book for Engineering Students and Draughtsmen published in 1907, called ‘Typical Steel Railway Bridges’ by W Thompson, the following is recommended:
Up to 100 feet span - Deck plate girder construction
100 to 125 feet span - Deck Warren girder construction
125 to 175 feet span - Parallel chorded through Pratt truss (termed a lattice girder)
175 to 275 feet span - Pratt truss with a curved top chord

At Bordesley Station the long single span carrying the Up main line was constructed with two parallel chorded through Pratt trusses, creating a lattice girder bridge, while a third identical truss (seen here) on a slightly different alignment supported the Down main line.

Robert Ferris

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