NOTABLE RAILWAY FEAT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 31 July 1925, Page 10

NOTABLE RAILWAY FEAT.

CHANGING A BRIDGE,

TWO HUNDRED MEN AT WORK

With 20 minutes to spare before the first train. was due, the engineers' of the Southern Bailway recently succeeded in replacing an old bridge by a new one weighing 300 tons, says a London paper. The bridge was swung into position where the. Cat-ford loopline crosses the old London and Brightton main line between Nunhead and Crofton Park stations.

The new bridge had been made necessary because, this summer the line will be used by heavy boat-train traffic from Victoria, thus avoiding Penge tunnel. The obi. bridge would have been unable to stand the weight of the King Arthur locomotives that will be used. Actually the new bridge could have been ready for trains 35 minutes before the first passed, over it. This was in spite of the fact, that the line, was not given over to the enginers until 1.15 a.m. on Sunday instead of midnight on Saturday.

Two minutes after a train front St. Paul’s to Bellingham passed over the old structure, 200 men began their task of moving the 120 ft spans of the old bridge to one side. The old bridge was skidded 4ft sideways by means of hydraulic jacks. This done, the centre girder and one outer girder of the new bridge were swung into position by a number of 30-ton cranes. The first train went past at 4.11 in the afternoon.

“Though it rained nearly all night, there was not one hitch,” said an engineer. “The second half of the new bridge will be placed in position in - a fortnight. In the meantime trains will have to pass over the bridge on a single line.”