The Newbattle Viaduct, sometimes also called the Lothianbridge, Newtongrange or Dalhousie Viaduct, carries the Borders Railway, which opened in 2015, over the River South Esk near Newtongrange, Midlothian, Scotland.

Original viaduct

The original viaduct was built by the Marquess of Lothian to extend the

Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway The Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway was an early railway built to convey coal from pits in the vicinity of Dalkeith into the capital. It was a horse-operated line, with a terminus at St Leonards on the south side of Arthur's Seat. Opened in sta ...

from

Dalhousie Mains Dalhousie ( ) may refer to: Buildings *Dalhousie Castle, a castle near Bonnyrigg, Scotland * Dalhousie Obelisk, a monument in Empress Place, Singapore *Dalhousie Station (Montreal), a former passenger rail station in Montreal, Quebec *Dalhousie st ...

to his coal pits at Arniston. It was constructed of stone piers to support the wooden structure of the bridge, and had a total length of around . To cross the river it used three cast iron spans in the form of

Gothic arch A pointed arch, ogival arch, or Gothic arch is an arch with a pointed crown, whose two curving sides meet at a relatively sharp angle at the top of the arch. This architectural element was particularly important in Gothic architecture. The earlie ...

es, each long, with the main one being high. It opened in 1831.

History

The present viaduct was opened in 1849 by the Edinburgh and Hawick Railway to carry the Waverley Line, running between

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

. The viaduct was designed by John Miller. It was closed to passenger traffic in 1969 as a result of the Beeching cuts, and to freight in 1972. It was reopened in 2015 for the Borders Railway line between Edinburgh and Tweedbank. Some work was required on the viaduct to prepare it for the reopening of the railway, although it was still structurally sound.

Design

It has 23 nearly semicircular arches, with 14 spans of , seven of , one of and one of . The piers are thick at the foundations, tapering to at the springing of the arches. The arches are lined with three layers of bricks. Most, but not all the arches are reinforced with iron strapping, as are nearly all of the piers. The long pier which sits in the river has a large cutwater. The last arch at the south end is a

skew arch A skew arch (also known as an oblique arch) is a method of construction that enables an arch bridge to span an obstacle at some angle other than a right angle. This results in the faces of the arch not being perpendicular to its abutments and its ...

to accommodate the A7 public road, which runs parallel to the viaduct before cutting underneath it. The viaduct is nearly straight, but with a slight curve at the northern end where it crosses the river. To the south of the viaduct is a caravan park.

References

External links

{{commons category, Newbattle Viaduct Viaducts in Scotland Borders Railway