Disused Railway Bridge Over Rochdale Canal - Chadderton, UK - Railroad Bridges on Waymarking.com

The bridge stands in front of lock 61 on the Rochdale Canal. The railway gave improved communications and freight carrying capacity and ultimately led to the canal's demise as a working canal, although it was reopened in 2002 for use by leisure boaters.

The Rochdale canal, which opened in 1804 is 32 miles long and connects Manchester on the west side of the Pennine Hills and Sowerby Bridge on the east side. Although revolutionary in its day, the necessity of crossing the Pennines meant that there was a total of 92 locks in its relatively short length.

The railway was longer than the canal but ran largely parallel with it, but crosses the canal a number of times. This railway bridge is a skewed bridge crossing the canal at an acute angle.

It is an English Heritage Grade II Listed building. It was made from Convex-bottomed cast-iron beams which spanned between the principal girders and rested on stone abutments. Decorated spandrels have pierced quatrefoils and daggers and form a Tudor arch below the principal girders. It was necessary to strengthen the bridge in the 19th Century with wrought iron beams.

These repairs proved inadequate and a new bridge was erected next to this one at a later date. The track bed was removed at some point after the new bridge was erected.

This Wikipedia page has details of the railway line, but this extract is a short summary. "The line climbed out of Manchester with an average gradient of 1 in 260 (0.38%) until it arrived at the summit and a 2,860 yards (2,620 m) long tunnel at Littleborough. From there it descended towards Normanton. The rails were of 15 feet (4.6 m) lengths laid at a gauge of 4 ft 9 in (1,448 mm) with a mixture of stone blocks and, on the embankments, wooden sleepers. The locomotives were provided by local manufacturers, six-wheeled Stephenson pattern. Carriages were all four wheeled. The average weight of a train would be about 18 tons, with an average speed of about 25 MPH (40 km/h), reaching approx. 42 MPH (67.6 km/h) downhill."

Although this bridge is no longer used, the railway line and the replacement bridge are still in use and these days form part of the Caldervale Line.

Bridge Type: Girder Bridge Usage: Abandoned/Not Active Moving Bridge: This bridge is static (has no moving pieces)

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