Appleford Railway Bridge
Appleford Railway Bridge carries the Cherwell Valley Line from Didcot to Oxford across the River Thames near the village of Appleford-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. It crosses the Thames on the reach between Clifton Lock and Culham Lock.
Brunel's original bridge (1843) was a timber construction, replaced in the 1850s by an iron girder bridge. The iron bridge was described in Engineering in 1896: '.... it consists of five spans of 43 ft. 4 in. measured from centre to centre of piers, and two land spans of 32 ft. The bridge is practically divided into two independent structures, there being two pairs of longitudinal girders, one carrying the up and the other the down line, and each pair being supported at the piers by separate groups of columns. These columns are of cast iron 2 ft. in diameter, and braced together by channel iron connected to the tops of the columns, and again near the water level, by channel iron. The longitudinal girders are 5 ft. deep; they are of the plate web type, with curved flanges at top and bottom 18 in. wide. These girders are placed 15 ft. 3 in. apart. The flooring was originally of timber and Barlow rails, carried on the lower flanges of the girders, but this was subsequently found insufficient, and in 1877 the bridge was strengthened by the addition of cross-girders and stiffening the longitudinals. The cross-girders are placed 7 ft. 4 in. apart, except at the ends of each span, where they are 3 ft. 4 in. apart; they are made with webplates and angleirons, the depth being 12 in. in the centre, reduced to 7 in. at the ends. They are bolted to the bottom of the longitudinals, and by this arrangement it was possible to complete the new floor without stopping the traffic. The longitudinal rail-bearers are laid on the cross-girders and are 9 in. deep, with plate webs and angle-irons. Timbering is also laid over the platform.'[1]
The present bridge was probably built in the late 1920s, when a number of railway bridges in the area were replaced with bowatring steel structures.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Wikipedia