Viaducts built as four-track from the start?

[GRALISTAIR]

I suppose it's reasonable that approaches to major (mostly London) termini would have been built wide.

Quite a number were built as 2-track and then widened later. Ones where the terminus was a later extension (Victoria and Waterloo come to mind) have a higher chance of being 4-track from the outset though.

Yes, that makes total sense.

Definitely 2-track to start, you can see the brickwork quite clearly from underneath.

Is that the one extremely close to Wolverton Works. If so (I am ashamed to admit it but the times were different) I have played under there many times and climbed the embankment to get 4 Bletchley shunters on Wolverton Works circa summer 1975.

 

[zwk500]

Is that the one extremely close to Wolverton Works. If so (I am ashamed to admit it but the times were different) I have played under there many times and climbed the embankment to get 4 Bletchley shunters on Wolverton Works circa summer 1975.

Yes, immediately north of Wolverton station crossing the Great Ouse valley.

 

[edwin_m]

For the Great Central ones mentioned upthread, here's the plan at time of construction for the Trent crossing. The four-track viaduct doesn't look to have been any longer than the bridge itself plus flood arches either side. The transition to embankment south of the river is still extant and only a short distance off the right hand end of this plan.

Track Plans

www.railwayarchive.org.uk

Here is Leicester Central, showing that the route was kept to two tracks as close to the station as possible. The station itself was on viaduct, with eight through tracks (two with platforms) and two bays each end.

Track Plans

www.railwayarchive.org.uk

 

[Hophead]

How are we defining a viaduct? The Channel Tunnel Rail Link crosses the A20 just east of the Folkestone terminal and a further bridge then crosses the M20 a few metres further on. There are 4 tracks here: the London bound high speed line with 3 tracks leading to & from Dollands Moor Yard. I'm pretty sure this will have been the case since it was all built.

 

[Topological]

For the Great Central ones mentioned upthread, here's the plan at time of construction for the Trent crossing. The four-track viaduct doesn't look to have been any longer than the bridge itself plus flood arches either side. The transition to embankment south of the river is still extant and only a short distance off the right hand end of this plan.

Track Plans

www.railwayarchive.org.uk

Here is Leicester Central, showing that the route was kept to two tracks as close to the station as possible. The station itself was on viaduct, with eight through tracks (two with platforms) and two bays each end.

Track Plans

www.railwayarchive.org.uk

That was why I ruled Leicester out in the suggestions for Great Central. Although perhaps the areas to the sides of the platforms mean that there are 4-track viaducts under there.

I just could not remember the name of the suburb of Nottingham where the likely 4-track part was. Thank you for providing the map.

It was also confirmed there is a 4-track part near Sheffield Victoria that now only carries the Stocksbridge stub.

It is interesting to read how so many of the wide expanses of track we see today were actually 2-track originally. Maybe it is just luck that these were sufficiently future proofed that the later tracks could be added.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Possibly the best candidates are those stations which were 'late arrivals' on the scene.

For example, Manchester Central, built between 1875 & 1880 - by which time the need for multiple track approaches would have been well understood. As well as the passenger terminus there were several big city-centre goods depots adjacent to Manchester Central, which probably needed separate parallel goods lines over the approach viaducts.

Looking at Google Maps, it certainly seems that Manchester Central had multiple track approaches on viaducts and bridges. These are separate to the earlier double-track MSJ&AR viaduct, still used by the Network Rail route to Warrington Central. Metrolink trams now use the southernmost viaducts which headed towards Manchester Central, the northern side trackbeds still look derelict.

So, just how many tracks were there heading into Manchester Central? Looks like just the two on the viaduct which starts in the Cornbrook area.

 

[snowball]

I often feel I'm not using the National Library of Scotland site correctly, so I'm not sure if there's an earlier map to see, but I'm currently looking at a 1915-16 25" map which shows two tracks on the now-Metrolink viaduct and three on the now-park viaduct, becoming, as you move SWwards, five on the brick viaduct where Cornbrook tram stop now is. That's in addition to the two tracks towards Altrincham.

I also remember having heard previously of five tracks on the Cornbrook viaduct. But was it originally fewer?

Edit: here is the view under the viaduct a bit nearer in towards Central - two brick viaducts of different-looking ages, one of which may itself have been widened. The one on the right is the Altrincham one.

Google Maps

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[Mcr Warrior]

I also remember having heard previously of five tracks on the Cornbrook viaduct.

Reckon you could be right, but doesn't that mean that then the Castlefield viaduct wasn't built as four track from the start, and would have been just two tracks initially (Altrincham to Oxford Road) with another three (Cornbrook to Manchester Central) added later on?

 

[snowball]

Reckon you could be right, but doesn't that mean that then the Castlefield viaduct wasn't built as four track from the start, and would have been just two tracks initially (Altrincham to Oxford Road) with another three (Cornbrook to Manchester Central) added later on?

I believe the total number of tracks in the Cornbrook area at one stage was 7 - five into Central plus two from Altrincham to Oxford Road/London Road. But the original layout, I don't know.

 

[edwin_m]

That was why I ruled Leicester out in the suggestions for Great Central. Although perhaps the areas to the sides of the platforms mean that there are 4-track viaducts under there.

Arches are
visible on Streetview round the "back" of the station so that part is on viaduct. I think the viaduct went right across with passenger access from the building (at street level alongside) through an arch and up to the platforms. So there was only a short part each end with four tracks, but rather more with eight or ten.

Reckon you could be right, but doesn't that mean that then the Castlefield viaduct wasn't built as four track from the start, and would have been just two tracks initially (Altrincham to Oxford Road) with another three (Cornbrook to Manchester Central) added later on?

Altrincham to Oxford Road is on its own structure throughout, at a lower level, with the line towards Ordsall Lane diverging underneath the viaducts serving Central. These tracks are also on separate viaducts, one steel (three tracks, now carrying the aerial garden) and one brick (two tracks, Metrolink) but they do converge east of Cornbrook. On the NLS 25-inch map this looks like a single five-track structure, but the Streetview below suggests it was built in two parts.

Georeferenced Maps - Map images - National Library of Scotland

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[RSARNA]

Looking at the viaduct at Clayton Bridge it looks like it was built as 3 or 4 tracks. As I have not been to UK for 10 years I cannot check it out

 

[snowball]

Looking at the viaduct at Clayton Bridge it looks like it was built as 3 or 4 tracks. As I have not been to UK for 10 years I cannot check it out

Seen from below it looks as if it has been widened twice!

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[LickeyIncliner]

Was the eastern approach viaduct to Birmingham New Street station built as four tracks?

Sorry if I've missed any earlier reply to this.

This map, described as being surveyed in 1887:

View map: Great Britain. Ordnance Survey, OS town plan - Birmingham and its Environs - sheet XIV.5.13 - Ordnance Survey Town Plans of England and Wales, 1840s-1890s

shows only two tracks on the viaduct east of New Street as far as Proof House Junction, and (for good measure) only two on the viaduct east of Moor Street, which was another possibility I was thinking of. (Moor Street at that time being just the street itself; Moor Street station was built later.)

 

[Steven Taylor]

I stand corrected. So effectively only Blackfriars Bridge was built x4.

I've checked the South London - from Cambria Jn to approximately Coldharbour Lane Bridge is on arches so qualifies; beyond that the LCD and LBSC tracks diverge horizontally and vertically. There's also a short section just west of Peckham Rye (which was 5 tracks at one stage!).

Northwards from Blackfriars Bridge to Ludgate Hill station was also 4-track from inception, and the line then descended off the viaduct with the eastern two tracks stopping where the viaduct finished. The westernmost two tracks continued to Farringdon, and joined the `widened lines`.

Adrian Gray`s book on the LCDR gives a lot of information together with Alan Jacksons book `London Termini`.
This is a particularly interesting railway with a convoluted station history.

 

[billh]

Seen from below it looks as if it has been widened twice!

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Apparently it never carried more than 2 tracks , the widening was to strengthen the structure. There was a cross over and siding at the western end for a coal yard at Clayton Bridge. I remember seeing several mineral wagons derailed and overturned in that siding as we passed over the level crossing, early 1960s, I wonder what happened there?

 

[Springs Branch]

I often feel I'm not using the National Library of Scotland site correctly, so I'm not sure if there's an earlier map to see, but I'm currently looking at a 1915-16 25" map which shows two tracks on the now-Metrolink viaduct and three on the now-park viaduct, becoming, as you move SWwards, five on the brick viaduct where Cornbrook tram stop now is. That's in addition to the two tracks towards Altrincham.

I also remember having heard previously of five tracks on the Cornbrook viaduct. But was it originally fewer?

Edit: here is the view under the viaduct a bit nearer in towards Central - two brick viaducts of different-looking ages, one of which may itself have been widened. The one on the right is the Altrincham one.

A squint into a couple of books covering the history of the CLC (Cheshire Lines Committee) and Manchester Central confirms the visual and OS map observations.

The original CLC viaduct to the new station at Manchester Central was double-track only, opened in 1877 and was apparently known as the Cornbrook Viaduct. This was separate, of course, to the existing MSJ&AR's viaduct (vintage 1849) and is the one now used by Metrolink trams.

There was a significant expansion of infrastructure in the early 1890s, leading to the opening of the separate Castlefield Viaduct in 1894 in parallel on the northern side. This is the one now part-derelict, partly used for the 'urban skypark' (2-star rating on Tripadvisor)

So, the route into Manchester Central did not meet the OP's criterion. It was another classic case of "built as double track, widened later".

I'm not sure how many tracks were carried on the northern Castlefield Viaduct at time of construction. Certainly there were three tracks in the mid-1930s, when the approaches to Manchester Central were resignalled with electro-pneumatic points and colour light signals. After resignalling, there was a pair of conventional up & down tracks on the northern viaduct, plus a third reversible line leading to the carriage sidings near Cornbrook Junction, making the five tracks mentioned earlier.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

@Springs Branch. Thanks for the info. Had been wondering just how the viaduct into Manchester Central apparently has an 1892 opening date, but the station itself was opened over a decade earlier.

On checking contemporary newspaper reports from the early 1890's, it seems that a Messrs. M. W. Walmsley and Co. from Manchester were engaged in the widening of the whole of the viaduct from the Central Station to Cornbrook, the contract described as being of a very extensive character, including some massive brickwork, over nine millions of bricks being used on the undertaking, besides those used in the diversion of the canal underneath.

A second firm (Heenan and Froude from Newton Heath, Manchester) supplied much of the metalwork used. They were also significantly involved in the construction of Blackpool Tower at around the same time.

 

[Julia]

As a guess Haversham, north of Wolverton on the WCML.

I used to live in the village and walk under it regularly - there's a very clear seam and change of colour in the brickwork where it was widened. I wouldn't swear to it but it was likely to be around the time the main line was diverted away from the (straighter) alignment through what is now the works and into the current station.

 

[1Q18]

Some quite significant bridges such as the Newcastle High Level Bridge were built as 3 track, which I think was quickly found inadequate, but it looks to me as if widening would have been very complex. Solved after 50 odd years by building another 4 track bridge.

Although it did eventually gain two tracks on the lower deck! Albeit for trams rather than trains.

 

[DanNCL]

The King Edward Bridge across the Tyne was built as and remains a 4 track viaduct.

 

[172007]

River Cole viaducts are 2 twin track that are parallel on HS2.approaches to Curzon Street, Curzon Street 3 and Lawley Middleway Viaducts are 6 track from the get go.

 

[Springs Branch]

Are we allowed viaducts which meet the OP's criteria but were demolished the best part of a lifetime ago?

If so, then there was the original viaduct from Bridge Street station across the Clyde and into Glasgow Central station.

The first viaduct was built around 1877 and had four tracks. Vested interests in Glasgow had prevented construction of any railway bridges across the River Clyde into the city centre for decades (the railway had arrived at the Bridge Street terminus on the south bank in 1841). By the time the Caledonian Railway had approval to bridge the Clyde and had bought up enough land to build Central station, rail traffic was already heavy enough to justify four tracks.

The bridge now used by all trains into Central was built subsequently - alongside the original one as part of an ambitious expansion of the station in the first decade of the 20th Century. The 1877 bridge continued in use until the time of the Cathcart Circle electrification in the early 1960s, when the tracks were removed and the old bridge subsequently demolished.

Substantial granite piers which had supported the original four-track viaduct are still visible in the River Clyde in this Google Street View image (just behind that gang of vaping neds)