BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATER
Bridging the ‘Worth Valley’s’ gap
Our steam railways offer a slice of history. Often, that heritage status is a fact of construction rather than merely an aesthetic, for nearly all bridges, buildings and other infrastructure date back to the Victorian era.
While they provide the backbone of these lines, in many cases, these structures are now crumbling or life-expired and it is safe to say we can expect many repair and replacement projects over the coming years.
Costing £150,000, the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway has spent months planning for one such project; the first instance when the railway has ever needed to completely replace a bridge. With 29 others to maintain on the line, it will doubtless not be the last.
Ingrow Bridge, or Bridge 11, is towards the Keighley end of the Yorkshire branch line, situated between Damems and Ingrow West, close to Ingrow Tunnel.
At 60 feet in length, the original bridge on this site was a wooden trestle, much of the line having been cheaply engineered in 1867, seemingly to save money as other engineering costs spiralled. An example of these unexpected expenses was the construction of Ingrow Tunnel, where stabilisation work to counter a quicksand problem had the opposite, unfortunate effect on a nearby church and the railway company had to pay nearly £2,000 (around £¼ million today) in compensation for damaging the building’s foundations.
The light nature of Bridge 11’s construction was not suited to the increasingly heavy locomotives and stock passing over it, so in 1904 the bridge was upgraded. The wooden trestle was replaced with a timber deck laid on raw and cast iron beams, supported by a stone pier and abutments, which served the line until the present day.
The 1904 construction of Ingrow Bridge is not the most visually imposing, being neither very long, nor very high. It was on the whole, a rather unremarkable structure. However, looks are not everything; Bridge 11 keeps Keighley and Ingrow connected to the rest of the railway; without the bridge, the railway would need to consider a name change!
In its latest incarnation, Bridge 11 retains its Victorian stone abutments and piers but rather than just renewing the timber decking – as had been done in the 1970s – the railway opted to future-proof the bridge by entirely replacing the span. A pre-cast, reinforced concrete deck has been designed and manufactured for the KWVR by a professional engineering consultancy and an army of volunteers organised to see it safely installed.
THE TEAM
While the bridge itself may be no looker, what grabs attention is those who are carrying out the work and the manner in which it is being done.
Key to the scheme is volunteer James Barlow; the KWVR’s chief civil engineer. Considered part of the railway’s new generation, James first volunteered in 2010. At 27 years old, there is more than 40 years age difference between him and his predecessor, from whom he took over in November 2019.
A railway engineer by trade, James originally volunteered to gain railway experience to help his career progression; now a full time Network Rail employee, he
is able to bring that expertise to his dealings with the ‘Worth Valley’, completing the circle.
With James holding down a full time job, he opted to share the responsibilities with another volunteer, 33-year-old Joe Curtis who also uses his experience working for Network Rail to handle all matters pertaining to rail maintenance, under the title of track engineer.
The two volunteers have been working closely on this project, with James retaining overall coordination of the project, while Joe shoulders responsibility for the logistics of the track renewal over the bridge, including relaying and preparing the cant for the cranes. The combined age of these two volunteers reflects the usual age of an average railway volunteer.
Not one of the KWVR civil engineering team is paid; all of the work, including that required to replace Bridge 11, is carried out by volunteers, which is remarkable for a project of this scale.
PREP WORK
Dismantling and replacing a bridge such as this requires the use of cranes, for which solid bases had to be built for the crane outriggers. In addition, the track curves out of Ingrow Tunnel on approach to the bridge, using a cant of 55mm to offset the train’s centripetal force.
Super elevated track and cranes do not mix well and as cranes were required to demolish the old bridge and build the new one, the cant on that curve had to be removed in a two day undertaking in mid-week January when no trains were running, with speed restrictions imposed once the running season commenced.
Working over a river – especially one prone to flooding – creates complicated access issues: scaffolding cannot be erected under the structure, nor can any structure be placed in the river that would impede its flow. Yet volunteers would need to safely work on the bridge bearings under the pier, so temporary fencing was required, because, as James points out: “We can’t have our volunteers falling six foot into a river!”
Netting was used to prevent debris from falling in and polluting the river. And, because to walk around it takes the better part of an hour, temporary access in the form of a scaffold bridge was erected to enable staff to cross.
Access from the site office, located at Ingrow West, was through the tunnel, requiring a safe walkway to be constructed with adequate illumination.
James notes that this particular requirement is an example of how steam railways are progressing. “Even as recently as four years ago they’d have never thought about putting a safe walkway through the tunnel.”
The location offers multiple challenges to this operation; on the Ingrow side, road access is through a new estate of 70 houses, some of which back directly onto the line. Months ahead of the work, the team's letter dropped to each occupant, explaining the planned work and inviting people who had questions or issues to get in touch with the railway.
Nobody did and relations with the residents are cordial, with some even offering cups of tea to the workers during preparation works.
In contrast, the west side of the bridge is undeveloped countryside with no road access.
This is not a one-size-fits-all operation and the challenges presented by the location and access conditions require a mix of modern and historic equipment and techniques. With no access on one side and the cost of hiring a road crane for the entire project prohibitive, the KWVR chose to play to its strength, transporting items to the site by rail ahead of the bridge demolition, and utilising rail plant for the majority of the operation. At the end of January, eight articulated lorries brought the concrete beams to the railway, where they were lifted onto flatbed wagons and taken to the location, where they were left ready at the lineside.
The KWVR is fortunate enough to own one crane and provide a home to a second – steam powered – crane, owned by the Bahamas Locomotive Society.
The railway’s own crane is a smaller 10-ton example built by Grafton Cranes in 1945 for the LNER, which assisted in the dismantling of the bridge and movement of materials on site. The third and final crane used in the operation was a 100-ton road crane, although thanks to the presence of the rail-based machines, this was only hired for one day, for the heavyweight job of lifting in the new beams, which saved the railway a considerable amount of money.
There is something joyous about heritage machinery installing the next generation modern bridge, as historic vehicles help secure the future of a heritage mainstay. Although, sadly, since the project began, the security of the industry has been placed under threat.
UNCERTAINTY
2020 had already got off to a difficult start for the ‘Worth Valley’, as Storm Ciara brought flooding in February that ingressed the sheds, turned the yard into a lake and caused portions of the track bed to resemble a canal.
Still, the railway continued to prepare for the bridge replacement. The work was originally scheduled to take place over three wet weeks at the end of March and beginning of April, but Covid-19 put the project on hold.
Work halted on March 25, after the existing bridge had been dismantled. James Barlow noted that the programme of work was exactly halfway through when the decision to stop was made: just one of the two new spans had been installed in its final position, with the
second still to be lifted in. Additional work required at that time included pouring concrete in the stitch joint to tie the beams together; waterproofing the bridge; and reinstating the track.
There was much still to do but the need to stop was clear. This project relies on volunteers, many of whom were in the at-risk category.
The smooth running of the operation depends on more than the permanent way volunteers: the brewers of the tea or minibus drivers are lynchpins in what was already an epic logistical exercise. James estimated the number of volunteers on the bridge project to exceed 50 and without time to devise Covid-19 safe ways, continuing to work was neither safe nor practical.
NOT GIVING UP
However, the team were far from waving the white flag, Ingrow Bridge is a vital connection; without the project’s completion, the line could not be reopened in its entirety, and the railway was aiming to reopen by August.
Therefore, in May, while the country was still firmly in lockdown, the KWVR began to plan how and when the project could be restarted, but with no income the future was still uncertain. Thankfully, in June the railway was the recipient of £50,000 of lottery funding from the Heritage Emergency Fund. KWVR chairman Dr Matt Stroh said at the time: “Without their support, we would have struggled to meet the additional costs caused by having to pause and then recommence the work.”
The railway’s reopening was now set for August 19. On July 11, work recommenced at the bridge site. With lockdown eased but restrictions still in place, the operation was different but manageable.
Stations with sanitisers were placed wherever required and masks worn where proximity dictated, and sanitising surfaces and handles throughout the day became just another part of the job.
James Barlow praised both the contractors and the volunteers for rising to the challenge of these new standards.
For James himself, Covid-19 specific briefings had to be given, and the addition of a final cleandown at the end of his shift lengthened his day, but, on the whole, the operation proceeded as originally planned back at the start of the year. In fact, when asked about the problems raised by Covid-19 compliance, the only unpleasant issue James could think of was the use of personal protective equipment during heart-pumping tasks, in the recent high temperatures: “Shovelling ballast in 32ºC with a mask on was not fun”.
The number of volunteers available was thankfully not affected by the government restrictions, so once up and running the project could proceed as originally planned. On July 17 the Craven-built 1931 steam crane began lifting the remaining concrete beams into place.
Over the next ten days, while test trains ran elsewhere on the line, the volunteers continued to tick the bridge tasks off the list, until July 28 when the rails went down.
The ballast train became the first to cross the bridge the following day, hauled by Class 20 No. 20031.
Once the ballast was shovelled and the final tasks attended to, the bridge was deemed complete and on July 31 the engineers handed back the railway to the operational department, ready for passenger trains. Staffed almost entirely by volunteers, the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway’s first bridge replacement was complete – an impressive achievement at any time, but an outstanding one during a pandemic.