Moulsford Railway Bridge
Moulsford Railway Bridge, known locally as "Four Arches" bridge lies a little to the north of Moulsford and South Stoke in Oxfordshire, UK.
The bridge carries the Great Western Main Line from Paddington, London to Wales and the West across the River Thames. It lies between the stations at Goring & Streatley and Cholsey, and crosses the Thames at an oblique angle on the reach between Cleeve Lock and Benson Lock.
The original bridge was designed to carry two tracks by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Railway and built between 1838 and 1839, at the same time as Maidenhead and Gatehampton railway bridges.
It is constructed from red brick with Bath stone quoins as four elliptical skew arches of 62 feet span and a headway height of 21 feet 8 inches.
In 1892 the line was converted to quadruple track and a second bridge was built alongside the upstream side of the original and connected to it by girders and brick bridgelets. The second bridge was built to the same profile and dimensions as the original but it lacks the stone quoins of the original and the plain uncut bricks make a jagged pattern where they meet the faces of the bridge.
See Also
Sources of Information
- [1] Wikipedia