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The Brunel Iron Bridges on the Birmingham to Wolverhampton Railway

Heartland

Heartland

master brummie
In a 2014 post the following comment was made:

My current "project" is to unravel the story behind the railway bridge over Icknield Street facing the Great Western Inn and adjacent to the old station.

A drawing at Kew suggests it may have been one of seven bridges that Brunel had to repair/rebuild following the collapse of the bridge over the Winson Green Turnpike (aka Handsworth New Road) on 25th August 1854 which delayed the opening of the line up to Wolverhampton until the following November.

The collapse of this bridge happened the day after the Government Inspector made a tour of the line and tested this bridge.
The passage of a ballast train (according to one paper) a broad gauge train, led to the failure of a wrought iron beam that broke into two and lead to 5 waggons of the train falling onto the road below.

The bridge was said to be of the iron box, or tubular, type, which presumably was based on a design by Brunel. In view of the time scale August -November to expect replacement would be unlikely, but modification remains a possibility.
 
I have a vague recollection that John Robinson McClean may have been involved in the construction of this bridge.
 
New wooden bridge began and completed in 20 days and intended to be permanent.

The delay arises from the fact that the iron bridges along the line are being strengthened and continuous trials taking place.
 
John Robinson McClean has been singled out by historians as the person responsible for the construction of the bridges and he was engineer to Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Dudley Railway and Brunel was responsible for the alterations made.

The issue here is that the GWR took over the BWD and Brunel was the GWR engineer. The use of tubular wrought iron girders were adopted by Brunel in different locations. The design of the BWD bridges may well have originated with Brunel therefore.
 
I had a fascinating correspondence with a chap called Graham who was researching the work of McClean and Brunel in relation to the works on the BWD. I must follow this up as Graham was doing some sterling work.

I formed the opinion that McClean and Brunel did work on a collaboration basis, evidence of which can be seen on the waterworks at Sandfields.
 
This is the opinion which I have formed as well

Regarding the locomotive on the ballast train that passed over at the time the Winson Green Bridge collapsed, the Wolverhampton Chronicle named this as the DREADNOUGHT, which was a broad gauge six coupled doubled frame loco built at Swindon in 1846.

It seems like most of the BWD bridges were later replaced. although there was one near Wednesbury which appears to have survived until the line closed. The tubular part at the top was in the shape of a triangle.
 
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