Lottery Win for SOUTH DEVON RAILWAY!
The South Devon Railway has been awarded a grant of £183,000
by the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the rebuilding of the five span, 60
metre long Nursery Pool Bridge, the main civil engineering structure on
the seven mile long railway.
Nursery Pool Bridge was built by the original South Devon
Railway Company for the opening of the branch in 1872 and has stood spanning
the River Dart just South of Buckfastleigh Station ever since. The bridge
was built of wrought iron and has a timber deck.
Over the years it has always been the main reason why
the heaviest locomotives that could run on the line were the Great Western
45XX locomotives.
After the South Devon Railway took over the operation
of the line the restriction was eased a little to allow some slightly larger
engines to use the bridge but a 5 mph speed restriction had to be applied.
Larger engines, such as the 4-6-0 tender locomotive Dumbleton Hall, which
is owned by the South Devon Railway, are banned from crossing the structure.
The South Devon Railway’s directors concluded that the
bridge must be rebuilt and have looked at various alternatives to achieve
this. Obviously the cost of such an undertaking for a small railway is
a major consideration. Also the very location of the bridge makes it a
difficult challenge. When the line was built in the 1870’s access was less
restricted than is now the case. So a novel design has been drawn up with
the help of Devon County Council’s Engineering Design Group working in
conjunction with the Trust’s Civil Engineering Director, Denver Woodward,
who is a Director of Mott MacDonald, which will enable the project to go
ahead at an affordable price and within the access constraints.
The new design makes use of the fact that the South Devon
Railway was originally laid to Brunel’s broad gauge of 7’ 0 ¼”.
What in fact will be done is to build a new reinforced concrete bridge
within the existing bridge. This will have several benefits. The old bridge
will be conserved, and part of the lottery fund programme includes repainting
the old structure. Thus the outward appearance of the old bridge will remain.
This solution also avoids the otherwise difficult and expensive option
of removing the old spans.
At the same time the new bridge within a bridge will
bring the line right up to date with a structure able to carry locomotives
such as Kings and Castles or exotic beasts such as Flying Scotsman or Sir
Nigel Gresley should they ever venture into deepest Great Western territory!
The contract for the work has been awarded to the Barnstaple
firm of Warwick Contractors who are specialists in this kind of civil engineering.
As a heritage steam railway the South Devon Railway has no viable alternative
but to carry out the work during its close season. So, immediately after
the last train has run on New Year’s day 2004 the SDR volunteer team will
move in to remove the track from the bridge so that the contractors can
start on January 5th. The contractors then have eleven weeks in which to
carry out the reconstruction after which SDR volunteers will reconnect
the track over the bridge. At the same time the track for almost a quarter
of a mile has to relaid and realigned to meet the new bridge, for when
the line was altered to standard gauge from broad gauge in 1892 one rail
was merely moved inwards by the necessary amount and the track has been
offset by this amount ever since! This is a most exciting project which
will enable the South Devon Railway to continue with its plans to improve
and develop the line as a first class tourist attraction. Richard Elliott
(General Manager) |
