Lyne Viaduct is a

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...

at Lyne in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It consists of three stone

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 ...

es and a

plate girder A plate girder bridge is a bridge supported by two or more plate girders. Overview In a plate girder bridge, the plate girders are typically I-beams made up from separate structural steel plates (rather than rolled as a single cross-section), w ...

approach span over a minor road and was built to carry the Symington to

Peebles Peebles () is a town in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. It was historically a royal burgh and the county town of Peeblesshire. According to the United Kingdom census, 2011, 2011 census, the population was 8,376 and the estimated population in ...

branch line of the

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was one of the two biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It was formed in 1845 with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively ex ...

over Lyne Water to the west of Peebles. Now closed to rail traffic the bridge is used as a footpath.

History

The

Symington, Biggar and Broughton Railway The Symington, Biggar and Broughton Railway was a railway company in southern Scotland. It built a line connecting Biggar, and later Peebles, to the main line railway at Symington. It was taken over by the Caledonian Railway in 1861, and was c ...

's extension to Peebles was authorised on 3 July 1860 but by the time construction was complete in 1863 the company had been absorbed by the much larger Caledonian Railway. The bridge is smaller but of similar design to the nearby

Neidpath Viaduct Neidpath Viaduct, occasionally known as the Queen's Bridge, consists of eight stone skew arches and was built to carry the Symington to Peebles branch line of the Caledonian Railway over the River Tweed to the south-west of Neidpath Castle. Now ...

and it often confused with it. Located just to the north of the

River Tweed The River Tweed, or Tweed Water, is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the River Tweed. The Tweed is one of the great salmon rivers ...

, it was built to carry the Symington to Peebles branch line obliquely at a height of over Lyne Water, close to its

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

with the Tweed and consists of three sandstone skew arches each of span and laid with helicoid courses, and a plate girder approach span of to the west. The total length of the structure is . From the slender piers

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s extend to parapet level and the parapet is capped by cast-iron railings. On 1 January 1923 ownership of the viaduct, along with the rest of the Caledonian Railway, passed to the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...

and thence to the Scottish region of

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...

on nationalisation in 1948. The line lost its regular passenger traffic on 5 June 1950 and closed completely on 7 June 1954 but the bridge remains in use as a footpath.

References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em Railway bridges in Scotland Pedestrian bridges in Scotland Skew bridges Transport in the Scottish Borders Bridges in the Scottish Borders Bridges completed in 1863 Viaducts in Scotland Stone arch bridges 1863 establishments in Scotland

History

See also

References