Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 33, 2017

The Severn Railway Bridge was a bridge carrying the railway across the River Severn between Sharpness and Lydney, Gloucestershire. It was built in the 1870s by the Severn Bridge Railway Company, primarily to carry coal from the Forest of Dean to the docks at Sharpness; at that time it was the furthest downstream bridge over the Severn. The company was taken over in 1893 by the Great Western Railway and the Midland Railway Companies when it got into financial difficulties. The bridge continued to be used for freight and passenger services until 1960, and saw temporary extra traffic on the occasions that the Severn Tunnel was closed for engineering work. The bridge was approached from the north via a masonry viaduct and had twenty-two spans. The pier columns were formed of circular sections, bolted together and filled with concrete. The twenty-one regular wrought iron spans were then put in place, as well as the southernmost span, the swinging bridge over the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. The bridge was 4162 ft long and 70 ft above high water, a total of 6,800 tons of iron being used in its construction. After a series of collisions between river traffic and the bridge piers, the bridge was demolished between 1967 and 1970, with few traces remaining.