The Bristol Railway Archive

The first few images in this gallery are familiar, but I don't remember seeing so many of the intact bridge, box, and various mechanisms:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29346119@N ... 490134758/

James wrote:The first few images in this gallery are familiar, but I don't remember seeing so many of the intact bridge, box, and various mechanisms:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29346119@N ... 490134758/

I don't think I've seen them. Thanks for posting the link.

I guess that even if the disaster hadn't happened, the bridge would probably have been closed sooner or later. I wonder how long it might have lasted.

There are a couple of clips of the Severn Bridge on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AImpaQ-7E1M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJcddsFI ... re=related

AndyK wrote:I guess that even if the disaster hadn't happened, the bridge would probably have been closed sooner or later. I wonder how long it might have lasted.

An interesting question. The gut feeling of course is that Beeching would have closed it.

However, its "temporary" closure in 1960 caused a major problem to the education authorities, because secondary school kids from Berkeley and Sharpness were travelling over it daily to attend school in Lydney.

A new school was built in Berkeley to accommodate them and for a short period a one-coach non stop train was running from Berkeley to Lydney via Gloucester to get them there and back. There was a photograph of it in one of the railway magazines at the time with a pannier tank at its head.

I just wonder whether Gloucestershire County Council may have come to a subsidy arrangement with BR, if doing that would have been cheaper than building a new school.

One of those "might have beens" from history that we shall never know

Does anyone know how long it was after the accident it was officially decided the bridge would not be repaired?

AndyK wrote:Does anyone know how long it was after the accident it was officially decided the bridge would not be repaired?

"Officially" - no idea

"Unofficially" - about 5 minutes. Traffic levels would no longer warrant it, although of course it was also used as a diversionary route when the Severn Tunnel was closed. Although the fuel cost of taking Wales-bound diverted trains via Glouceste would be higher, it would have been nothing like the cost of repairing the bridge.

As I was writing that paragraph, a thought suddenly occurred to me. The costs of repairs should have been borne by the tanker's insurers, not BR.

Robin Summerhill wrote:

AndyK wrote:Does anyone know how long it was after the accident it was officially decided the bridge would not be repaired?

As I was writing that paragraph, a thought suddenly occurred to me. The costs of repairs should have been borne by the tanker's insurers, not BR.

Should have. But I read somewhere that due to the principles of marine insurance, the amount the insurers had to pay up was only a fraction of the reinstatement cost.

Robin Summerhill wrote:

AndyK wrote:Does anyone know how long it was after the accident it was officially decided the bridge would not be repaired?

"Officially" - no idea

"Unofficially" - about 5 minutes. Traffic levels would no longer warrant it, although of course it was also used as a diversionary route when the Severn Tunnel was closed. Although the fuel cost of taking Wales-bound diverted trains via Glouceste would be higher, it would have been nothing like the cost of repairing the bridge.

As I was writing that paragraph, a thought suddenly occurred to me. The costs of repairs should have been borne by the tanker's insurers, not BR.

I read somewhere that when the tankers hit the bridge it was in the process of being strengthened to take heavier trains and that this work actually continued on some of the spans after the accident.

WR Tim wrote: I read somewhere that when the tankers hit the bridge it was in the process of being strengthened to take heavier trains and that this work actually continued on some of the spans after the accident.

The BBC reported this in 2004:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/fo ... ster.shtml

I notice in the Auction Catalogue for the Lynton & Barnstaple Rly Auction
at Twerton Park on July 11th there is a GWR blue print of a section of the
Severn Rail Bridge (1939) and a locking sketch of the swing bridge showing
semaphores(1896), Could be of Interest to Modellers