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GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line
GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton
Bordesley Station: gwrbg2527
This photograph appeared in the Great Western Railway Magazine
Volume XXIX No 3 (March 1917) with the following caption; 'One of four girders
made by E C & J Keay for GWR bridge over Sandy Lane near Bordesley. Length
- 104 feet 9 inches, Height - 8 feet 8 inches, Width - 2 feet 9 inches to 3
feet 4 inches, Weight - 63.5 tons.'
After they had established their James Bridge Works in Darleston
in 1887, E C & J Keay Ltd specialised in the manufacture of structural
steelwork for buildings and bridges. They supplied steelwork for many major
projects including 6,000 tons of steelwork for the reconstruction of Snow Hill
station (see gwrbsh1896). Text books from the
period suggest that a 100 foot span was about the economic limit for plate
girder bridge design, with a trussed girder design recommended for longer
spans. E C & J Keay's large site at Darleston allowed sections of girder
bridges to be machine riveted together under factory conditions and this
pre-assembly produced more consistent construction at lower cost. In 1888, E C
& J Keay also built an iron works at their site for the production of
bearings and cast ironwork. The works had access to a private railway siding
allowing connection from the Grand Junction Railway (later LNWR) near
Walsall.
The bridge girders can be seen being transported as exceptional
loads on wagons specifically designed to carry girders. Each end of the girder
was carried on a turntable to allow the load to move as it negotiated curves.
These articulated wagons were given the telegraphic code 'Pollon', with the
first six wheel Pollon wagons classified as 'Pollon B'. These being the largest
wagons owned by the Great Western Railway when their wagon diagram list was
introduced were given the diagram 'A1'. By 1917 there were three pairs of
Pollon B wagons numbered 48979/48980, 48981/48982 and 48999/49000. The Pollon B
wagon No 49000 in the photograph (with sibling No 48999) were originally built
as convertible broad gauge stock in 1887 (Lot 422) to transport standard gauge
locomotives and had bridge rails fitted on their decks. In this guise they
carried the numbers 11301 and 11302, but were renumbered when they were
permanently converted to standard gauge articulated wagons in 1892. The Pollon
B wagons had a tare weight of 10 tons, 16 cwt each and were rated to carry 30
tons each, allowing a total load of 60 tons.
Robert Ferris
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