Disused railway viaduct piers near Fawley tunnel - geograph

Ballingham Railway Bridge (also known as Fawley Viaduct) was a railway bridge over the

River Wye The River Wye (; ) is the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the UK, stretching some from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn Estuary. The lower reaches of the river forms part of Wales-England bor ...

, built by the

Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway The Hereford, Ross and Gloucester Railway was a railway which ran for linking Hereford and Gloucester, England, via Ross-on-Wye. It was opened on 1 June 1855 as a broad gauge line, it was amalgamated with the Great Western Railway in 1862. ...

. It was built in 1855 and was closed and dismantled in 1965. The bridge was located just south of Ballingham railway station

History

Construction of the railway started in 1851, but it didn't open until 1855, due to the complexity and cost of building four river bridges and four tunnels. The railway was worked from the start by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

and was converted to

mixed-gauge Dual gauge railroad track has three or four rails, allowing vehicles of two track gauges to run on it. Signalling and sidings are more expensive to install on dual gauge tracks than on two single gauge tracks. Dual gauge is used when there i ...

in 1866 and later to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

. The bridge had five masonry piers, which originally carried six timber spans. The timber spans were later replaced with plate girders. The line was closed in 1965, as part of the

Beeching cuts The Beeching cuts, also colloquially referred to as the Beeching Axe, were a major series of route closures and service changes made as part of the restructuring of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain in the 1960s. They are named ...

, and the spans were removed from the bridge

Today

The masonry piers remain in place. A riverside right-of-way runs upstream from Hoarwithy Bridge to the remains of Ballingham Railway Bridge, where it swings away from the river to meet the Ballingham to Carey Road.

References

{{Coord, 51.9726, -2.6275, type:landmark_region:GB-HEF, display=title History of Herefordshire Rail transport in Herefordshire Bridges completed in 1855 Railway bridges in Herefordshire Bridges across the River Wye