Description

Shotts Iron Co, March 1831. 18 foot span cast-iron girder skew bridge. Pink sandstone rubble boundary walls; cast-iron beams, curved in elevation and L and inverted T shape in cross section; uniform sized flanges to T-section beams; hardwood sleepers between beams; replacement decking.

Statement of Interest

The Innocent Railway, constructed between 1827 and 1831 at a cost of ?133. 10s, was the first railway into Edinburgh. The name of the railway reflected its pastoral nature (the locomotives were horse-drawn) in comparison with more sophisticated steam railways. Originally it spanned the full width of the railway between the boundary walls and was double line track until its reduction to single track in 1847. The principal interest of the bridge is the early use of a top flange, albeit a small one, which may show knowledge of Eaton Hodgekinson?s experiment resulting in a bridge of November 1830 carrying the Liverpool and Manchester Railway at Water Stout. The bridge is one of the earliest examples of its type. The railway line was closed to passenger traffic from 1860 but continued to carry goods traffic until 1968; in 1981 Lothian Regional Council converted the disused line into a path for cyclists and pedestrians.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17791504

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Staffordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)