Radcliffe Viaduct
Rectory Junction Viaduct, also known as the Radcliffe Viaduct, crosses the River Trent between Netherfield and Radcliffe on Trent near Nottingham. It is a Grade II listed building. History The bridge was built in 1850 by Clayton & Shuttleworth of Lincoln on the Nottingham-Grantham Line for the Ambergate, Nottingham, Boston and Eastern Junction Railway. The Trent Navigation Company demanded a minimum clear span of , so the railway company built a cast iron arch. The clearance above the water is . The iron arch was formed of six ribs, constructed in eight segments. The approach viaduct, originally constructed in timber and comprising 32 spans, was rebuilt in brick in 1909-1910 by Alexander Ross. The brick viaduct comprises 28 spans, eighteen are 24 ft 11 ins, and ten are 25 ft 7 ins. The internal cast iron ribs were encased in concrete by British Rail in 1981 to increase the strength of the bridge, but the original cast iron ribs on the exterior were left exposed ...
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British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British railway companies, and was privatised in stages between 1994 and 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission, it became an independent statutory corporation in January 1963, when it was formally renamed the British Railways Board. The period of nationalisation saw sweeping changes in the railway. A process of dieselisation and electrification took place, and by 1968 steam locomotives had been entirely replaced by diesel and electric traction, except for the Vale of Rheidol Railway (a narrow-gauge tourist line). Passengers replaced freight as the main source of business, and one-third of the network was closed by the Beeching cuts of the 1960s in an effort to reduce rail subsidies. On privatis ...
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