Railway accommodation bridge at NZ 225 311

Railway accommodation bridge, 1885 for the Spennymoor Branch of the North Eastern Railway Company.

MATERIALS: snecked sandstone, mostly rock-faced and margined, with ashlar dressings; red brick arch

PLAN: single arched between abutments that rise from the sides of the cutting.

DESCRIPTION: the railway runs through a cutting, and the bridge comprises a single segmental arch 4.32m wide by 7.9m span by 4.72m high at the crown. It is set between abutments that rise from the cutting's sides. The eastern side of the cutting is marginally higher and the bridge deck slopes down slightly towards the west. The bridge appears to have been constructed to allow for dualling of the line, although only a single track was ever laid. The masonry is mostly rock-faced, and is margined on the abutment quoins, parapet end piers and elevations of the voussoirs; the inner faces of the parapets and soffits of the voussoirs are in contrast tooled and margined. The arch rings spring from skewback stones set above impost bands, and individual voussoirs have stepped ends that key directly in to the spandrels. The parapets are differentiated from the spandrels by a near-horizontal string course at deck level, and are topped by coping stones with a gently sloping upper surface, angled to the outside to help shed rain water. Parapets terminate in rectangular end piers that break forward on the elevations,and have ashlar pyramidal caps. Impost bands and string coursing are also ashlar, and both have a smooth, concave lower moulding, rising to a square middle and angled third section. All coping stones and end caps rise from a similar concave moulding.