Railway Swing Bridge Over River Ouse

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 16/04/2012

SE 72 SE 11/68

GOOLE HOOK ROAD (east side, off) Railway swing bridge over River Ouse

II*

Railway swing bridge. 1869. Designed by Thomas E Harrison and constructed by Butler and Pitts of Stanningley (fixed spans) and W G Armstrong and Co of Newcastle upon Tyne (swing span), for the North Eastern Railway Company. C20 alterations, including steel replacement starlings. Wrought- iron girders; cast-iron piers filled with cement, timber starlings and control cabin; abutments of red brick in English bond with sandstone ashlar dressings. Abutments have coved ashlar cornices and blocking courses. 6 spans, each of 3 hogback plate girders (the central girder between the twin railway tracks): 5 fixed spans of approximately 35 metres each, one to the east end and 4 to the west, and a swing span approximately 76 metres long, pivoted in the centre. The swing span turns on 36 rollers on a 9 metre diameter race enclosed in a 15 metre diameter pier supported on 7 columns, within a large timber starling, now fragmentary, with plank decking. The fixed spans are carried on sets of 3 column piers with plain bell-shaped Egyptian-style lotus flower capitals; the third and fourth piers from the east have lower sections enclosed in C20 sheet steel starlings, and the eastern piers have been thickened and enclosed within a later C19-C20 timber starling with plank decking. Both timber starlings were being replaced with steel at time of resurvey. The swing span carries an iron staircase on the north side, and a square platform on top with a cast-iron balustrade and central octagonal cabin with 16-pane windows to 7 sides, coved cornice and flat roof with wire stays to a central finial. Sides of bridge with walls of plate girders. Originally operated by hydraulic motors, now electrically powered; the motors are housed in boxes beside the control cabin. Carries the main Doncaster-Hull line. Probably the finest example of its kind in Britain, and said to be the second largest railway swing bridge in the world when built. Still in active use. This bridge is also in Kilpin parish. M F Barbey, Civil Engineering Heritage: Northern England, 1981, pp 97-9.

Listing NGR: SE7649924707