Valley Road railway bridge


Recommended Posts

Various photos of it crop up in several railway threads here. Trying searching "Valley".

Otherwise, your best bet is to go to Picture the Past and search "Valley Road". That will give you a lot of options, showing the original early bridge and the later 1920s enlarged version.

Link to post
Share on other sites
is this it?

That's the one. I didn't refer to that site as well, because I didn't want to give the OP an overload of information, but now you mention it....... :)

And of course in its earlier version, it was this http://www.pictureth...015280&prevUrl=

Imagine trying to get the ring road though there

Link to post
Share on other sites

Not sure when demolished, over a weekend early 1980's? was there watching on the Sunday morning, demolition went ahead despite a worker falling off/through the bridge and getting killed on the Saturday night, as you can imagine quite a sombre day

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 years later...

Resurrected the subject because this photo has appeared on Picture the Past.

valley1.jpg

In the late 1890s, the construction of the railway bridge over Valley road at Basford (although it's several years before Valley Road existed). The white mound in the centre is where Vally Road would be.

valleyboth.jpg

When it was completed it looked like this - on the left. But by the 1930s it was enlarged to become the photo on the right, which is the version many people here will remember

Now it looks like this

valleynew.jpg

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 months later...

There are references in a couple of books: 'The Great Central Then and Now' by Mac Hawkins has 'then and now' photos of the embankment leading to the bridge (part of which is just seen in the 'then' picture, and the caption states 'the embankment was removed over several weeks in 1980.' So the implication is that the bridge was removed at the same time although it doesn't actually say so. It also says that during the demolition of the bridge one of the contractor's men was killed when he fell from the parapet whilst it was being cut up and removed. In 'The Rise and Fall of Nottingham's Railway Network Volume 1' by Hayden J. Reed there is a photo of the bridge captioned 'seen in 1980 just before demolition.'

Link to post
Share on other sites

I had the misfortune of passing the bridge immediately after the fall. It was a Friday night I believe. The little close of new housing is named after the victim.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I REMEMBER a youth from Bestwood est falling from the bridge in the 50s,he survived his name was Jacky Laing,and i worked in the shop in the picture when it was aMarsdens in the 60s

Link to post
Share on other sites

yes the were working on the bridge for some time, but think the main span was removed in one section by cranes during the saturday night/sunday morning, the ring road was closed off around the area for most of that weekend

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 1 year later...

Anyone have any idea's on how the change over from the old one to the new one was made? For a start the new one looked a fair bit higher than the old one (but that may have been an illusion) secondly the new one was built alongside but there is no deviation in the tracks to permit the new one being used, given the closeness of the Perry Rd overbridge and the North to South Rathole line joining the UP would bar any large scale track realignment? or is that what they did? I certainly don't recall and sudden kink and from Perry Rd looking north the lines were straight as an arrow

Link to post
Share on other sites

Never really gave it a thought Ashley, unless the replacement was laid with the track in situ, or is that a recent development.

I'll plough through some books when I've got a few minutes.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I did see a class 40 on it a couple of times bubble, but as you say, 37's were the norm.

Best when it was V2 hauled though!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Just a thought, the brick piers for the new box section bridge are much wider than needed. I wonder if they built the piers cut into the embankment either side of the original bridge followed by the new box section bridge and then jacked it across into position when needed. That would leave no bends in the line and could be accomplished over a week end.

As to the height I think that's a bit of an illusion due to the original deep arch going and the box section being flat underneath.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...