Bodmin & Wenford overbridge is replaced
CORNWALL Council has replaced the Beacon Road overbridge that has straddled the Boscarne and Parkway branches just outside Bodmin General on the Bodmin & Wenford Railway since the line route opened in 1887.
Contractors arrived in early January and had completed the work in five weeks by February 17, allowing a permanent way train to venture down the track again in readiness for public trains to restart on March 15.
Mindful of the railway’s heritage, the new bridge looked much like the original. The old cast iron edge beams have been retained and refettled; how they came to Bodmin in 1887, after manufacture in Tavistock in 1858, is an enduring mystery. However, the new bridge is still single carriageway road, and so Beacon Road itself will remain a traffic bottleneck at this point.