Building the last Main Line Railway

Newton to the Oxford Canal: gcrcs157

This photograph was taken from the top of the Great Central embankment looking towards the construction of bridge 448, the viaduct which carried the GC's Main Line over the Oxford Canal at Rugby. A steam powered crane is at work on the far side of the embankment.

Note the primitive 'stop', a sleeper laid across the track, that has been installed at the sudden end of the temporary tracks in the foreground: a typically pragmatic yet makeshift arrangement. Visible at the centre of the picture are two of the massive brick piers which eventually bore the weight of the four girder span.

This was unusual as the bridge would have been started well in advance of the embankment being built. Therefore there is a good possibility that the construction of the bridge over the Oxford Canal gave the contractor problems causing a delay in its completion.

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