The Newbattle Viaduct, sometimes also called the Lothianbridge, Newtongrange or Dalhousie Viaduct, carries the

Borders Railway The Borders Railway connects the city of Edinburgh with Galashiels and Tweedbank in the Scottish Borders. The railway follows most of the alignment of the northern part of the Waverley Route, a former double-track line in southern Scotland a ...

, which opened in 2015, over the

River South Esk :''Note: the southern headwater of the River Esk in Lothian is also known as the South Esk.'' The South Esk () is a river in Angus, Scotland. It rises in the Grampian Mountains at Loch Esk in Glen Doll and flows through Glen Clova to Strathm ...

near

Newtongrange Newtongrange () is a former mining village in Midlothian, Scotland. Known in local dialect as ''Nitten'', or ''Nitten by the Bing (mining), Bing'' (), it became Scotland's largest mining village in the 1890s, with the sinking of the Lady Victor ...

, Midlothian, Scotland.

Original viaduct

The original viaduct was built by the

Marquess of Lothian Marquess of Lothian is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, which was created in 1701 for Robert Kerr, 1st Marquess of Lothian, Robert Kerr, 4th Earl of Lothian. The Marquess of Lothian holds the subsidiary peerages of Earl of Lothian (created ...

to extend the

Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway The Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway was an early railway built to convey coal from pits in the vicinity of Dalkeith into the capital. It was a horse-operated line, with a terminus at St Leonards station, Edinburgh, St Leonards on the south side ...

from Dalhousie Mains to his coal pits at Arniston. It was constructed of stone piers to support the wooden structure of the bridge, and had a total length of around . To cross the river it used three cast iron spans in the form of

Gothic arch A pointed arch, ogival arch, or Gothic arch is an arch with a pointed crown meet at an angle at the top of the arch. Also known as a two-centred arch, its form is derived from the intersection of two circles. This architectural element was part ...

es, each long, with the main one being high. It opened in 1831.

History

The present viaduct was opened in 1849 by the Edinburgh and Hawick Railway to carry the

Waverley Line The Waverley Route was a railway line that ran south from Edinburgh, through Midlothian and the Scottish Borders, to Carlisle railway station, Carlisle. The line was built by the North British Railway; the stretch from Edinburgh to Hawick open ...

, running between

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

. The viaduct was designed by John Miller. It was closed to passenger traffic in 1969 as a result 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 to freight in 1972. It was reopened in 2015 for the

line between Edinburgh and Tweedbank. Some work was required on the viaduct to prepare it for the reopening of the railway, although it was still structurally sound.

Design

It has 23 nearly semicircular arches, with 14 spans of , seven of , one of and one of . The piers are thick at the foundations, tapering to at the springing of the arches. The arches are lined with three layers of bricks. Most, but not all the arches are reinforced with iron strapping, as are nearly all of the piers. The long pier which sits in the river has a large cutwater. The last arch at the south end is a

skew arch A skew arch (also known as an oblique arch) is a method of construction that enables an arch bridge to span an obstacle at some angle other than a right angle. This results in the faces of the arch not being perpendicular to its abutments and it ...

to accommodate the A7 public road, which runs parallel to the viaduct before cutting underneath it. The viaduct is nearly straight, but with a slight curve at the northern end where it crosses the river. To the south of the viaduct is a caravan park.

References

External links

{{commons category, Newbattle Viaduct Viaducts in Scotland Borders Railway