UK Bridges

[Anonymous]

Do U.K. railroads use wooden trestle bridges like American railroads?

[Gunneral]

Some coal mine private lines in the 1930`s and earlier did use them, one I remember was over the Burn Closes, Wallsend on Tyne, Northumberland, now Tyne & Wear, in the 40`s, but it was in a delapidated state, it was a "dare" to walk over it.

[Anonymous]

Basically no.

Some private / industrial lines did... but for short distances for the most part. The public railway companies did not.

The exception that comes to mind would be the original Barmouth viaduct but that was replaced and the structure was more like a pier and not US trestle style (ie the deck was supported on columns not bents).

Coal unloading to ships in the north east was done from Staithes which were usually timber but, again, the timber was much more vertical as columns and not similar to trestle bents.

Several reasons trestles weren't used...
Timber (especialy large section timber) would be far too expensive in the UK ... thanks to Henry VIII using loads for his navy and massive amounts of woodland being converted to charcoal for smelting before coke processing was worked out. Brick was cheaper in the quantities required. It is also "permanent".

Early railways had to appear to be massively built to overcome the "That will never work" brigade... you need to recall that when Brunel was wroking on Box tunnel (Great Westerm main line) very eminent medical men went into print tosay that it was a foolhardy waste of money because... pay attention now, this is SERIOUS...everybody knows that the constant downhill grade for more than a mile will cause trains to accelerate out of control to speeds in excess of 40 mph which will kill everyone on board.. because it is a well known fact that the human body cannot withstand such vast speeds. Not the exact argument but paraphrased... they were serious.

Other aspects are that there are relatively few long viaducts in the UK (compared to the USA). Many early US timber trestles were either filled or replaced by other materials.

Most long viaducts in the UK are brick, a few are stone... often stone is used as a facing while the main structure is brick.

I would expect that the Board of Trade Railway Inspectorate would have vetoed any significant large timber trestle at the earliest planning stage (even before a line was presented to Parliament as a Bill... (With few exceptions rail lines in the UK are there as a result of an Act of Parliament... which means that they have Right of Way over roads because the roads are only there by Common Law... the exception - never more than a handfu or so - were where the railway went through a landowner's land and he got his right of way written into the Act setting up the railway). This means that the railway can close any road it crosses at grade for traffic and for maintenance without asking anyone's permission... unless it is the only access... in which case we go back to Medieval law... they do usually negotiate long stoppages though.

Hope this helps.

[BR60103]

Wasn't (isn't) the Barmouth viaduct a timber bridge? I seem to remember its near abandonment due to some type of marine worm eating at it.