Fledborough Viaduct is a former
railway viaduct
A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide ...
near
Fledborough
Fledborough is a hamlet in Nottinghamshire, England. Although now redundant, the Anglian parish church of St Gregory's, earned the hamlet the nickname of "the Gretna Green of the Midlands" in the 18th century, due to the ease in which couples c ...
,
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...
which is now part of the national cycle network.
History
The viaduct is a substantial structure which carried the double-track
LD&ECR's Chesterfield Market Place to
Lincoln Central
Lincoln railway station (previously Lincoln Central) serves the city of Lincoln in Lincolnshire, England. The station is owned by Network Rail and managed by East Midlands Railway. East Midlands Railway provides the majority of services from th ...
main line over the
River Trent
The Trent is the third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and ...
.
It is situated between the former stations of
Fledborough
Fledborough is a hamlet in Nottinghamshire, England. Although now redundant, the Anglian parish church of St Gregory's, earned the hamlet the nickname of "the Gretna Green of the Midlands" in the 18th century, due to the ease in which couples c ...
and
Clifton-on-Trent, but nearer the latter.
Opened in 1897, it consists of 59 arches spread either side of four metal girder spans which cross the river itself. Nine million bricks were used in its construction which cost £65,000.
Timetabled passenger services over the viaduct ended in September 1955, though summer weekend excursions from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire to Cleethorpes and Mablethorpe and from
Manchester Central to
Yarmouth Vauxhall continued until 1964.
From the 1960s traffic east of Langwith Junction was overwhelmingly coal, much of which went straight from collieries to High Marnham Power Station which opened in 1959, this traffic therefore turned off about half a mile before the viaduct. The Grimsby to Whitland express fish train ran until at least 1962 via Fledborough and through
Mansfield Central.
The four original steel truss spans over the River Trent were replaced with steel plate girder spans of single track width in 1965. These were positioned within the existing spans before the old spans were removed.
Traffic continued to run over the viaduct until 21 February 1980 when a goods train derailed at Clifton-on-Trent seriously damaging the track. Reinstatement was deemed uneconomic and the line from Pyewipe Junction over the viaduct as far as High Marnham was closed and ultimately lifted.
Coal traffic continued from the west to High Marnham power station until this closed in 2003. Since 2009 that stretch of line has become
Network Rail's High Marnham Test Track
The High Marnham Test Track is a linear railway test track created in 2009 and centred on Lodge Lane, Tuxford, in Nottinghamshire in the United Kingdom. It houses Network Rail's Rail Innovation & Development Centre (RIDC), originally known a ...
.
Modern Times
Today the railway trackbed eastwards from the site of
Fledborough station, across the viaduct, through
Clifton to
Doddington & Harby forms an off-road part of
National Cycle Route 647 which is part of the
National Cycle Network
The National Cycle Network (NCN) is the national cycling route network of the United Kingdom, which was established to encourage cycling and walking throughout Britain, as well as for the purposes of bicycle touring. It was created by the cha ...
.
From Harby onwards through the site of
Skellingthorpe almost to Pyewipe Junction the trackbed forms an off-road part of ''National Cycle Route 64''.
Fledborough to Lincoln by Bike: via ''cycle-route''
/ref>
See also
*List of crossings of the River Trent
This is a list of crossings of the River Trent, a major river flowing through the The Midlands, Midlands of England.
The table lists crossings that have been identified downstream from the River Sow confluence, the first major tributary on the riv ...
References
Sources
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{{refend
External links
Fledborough Viaduct on old OS map
''npemaps''
Fledborough Viaduct signalling and trackwork plus High Marnham Power Station
''signalboxes''
''forgottenrelics''
''transportheritage''
* ttps://archive.today/20130707050014/http://www.oldminer.co.uk/Fledborough_Viaduct%20Frame.htm Fledborough Viaduct photos''oldminer''
Fledborough Viaduct and High Marham Power Station
''neolithicsea''
Fledborough Viaduct and Dukeries Trail
''nottinghamshire''
Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway structures
Railway viaducts in Nottinghamshire