I. K. Brunel's First Cast Iron Bridges and the Uxbridge Road Fiasco

NOTES AND REFERENCES

• E. T. MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway, Vol. 1 (London, 1927).
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• J. C. Bourne, The History and Description of the Great Western Railway (London, 1846), longitudinal section.
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• T. Swailes, '19th century cast-iron beams: their design, manufacture and reliability', Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng., Civil Engineering, vol. 114 (1995), pp. 25–35; H. T. Angus, Cast Iron: Physical and Engineering Properties, 2 edition (Butterworth, London, 1976).
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• T. Tredgold, Practical Essay on the Strength of Cast Iron and Other Metals (London, 1822); ibid., 2nd edition (London, 1824).
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• T. Swailes, op. cit. (3), pp. 28–29.
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• As demonstrated in his tabulation of elastic limits and breaking loads of test bars, Tredgold, op. cit., 2nd edition, p. 79.
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• T. Tredgold, op. cit, 2 edition, pp. 54–55 and fig. 9.
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• E. Hodgkinson, 'Theoretical and Experimental Researches to Ascertain the Strength and Best Form of Iron Beams', Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, 2' Series, vol. 5 (1831), pp. 407–544.
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• R. S. Fitzgerald, Liverpool Road Station, Manchester: An historical and architectural survey (Manchester University Press, 1980), pp. 23–28.
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• F. Bramah, 'A Series of Experiments on the Strength of Cast Iron', Trans. Inst. Civ. Eng., vol. 2 (1838), pp. 113–135 and plates.
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• I. K. Brunel, Facts [1" vol.], TNA, RAIL 1149/8, p. 133.
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• Drawings, NRGWTPR, GWR nos. 12910 and 12924.
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• I. K. Brunel, 'Facts' [2nd vol.], TNA, RAIL 1149/9, p. 99.
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• Summarised in IKB's return to the Board of Trade, Railways Inspectorate under 'Great Western Railway', in 'Returns of Iron Railway Bridges, 1847', TNA, MT 8/1.
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• Ibid; Drawings, NRGWTPR, GWR nos. 12909 and 12922.
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• I. K. Brunel, 'Facts' [2nd vol.], TNA, RAIL 1149/9 p. 98, footnote.
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• Report, IKB to Directors of the GWR, 14 Sept 1835, TNA, RAIL 250/82, p.4.
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• Copy letter, IKB to C. Saunders, 17 Nov 1835, TNA, RAIL 250/82, pp. 15–16. The Metropolis Roads Commission (popularly misnamed 'Metropolitan') was established to take over various turnpike trusts in the capital from 1 Jan 1827.
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• J. C. Bourne, op. cit. (2), plate.
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• Copy letter, IKB to Directors, 7 Jan 1836, TNA, RAIL 250/82, pp. 22–23.
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• IKB's notes of `GWR Tenders', TNA, RAIL 1149/44.
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• GWR London Committee, Abstract of Minutes, 23 Feb 1837, TNA, RAIL 250/83; Copy letter, IKB to Grissell and Peto, 23 March 1837, TNA, RAIL 1149/2, p.47.
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• I. K. Brunel, 'Facts' [2nd vol.], list of quantities for GWR Contract 2L, TNA, RAIL 1149/9, p.21.
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• J. C. Bourne, op. cit. (2), p. 33; Report, IKB to Directors, 26 May 1836, TNA, RAIL 250/82, p. 29.
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• S. C. Brees, Railway Practice [Pt Series] (London, 1837), plate 43; drawings, NRGWTPR, GWR nos. 12895 and 12895A.
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• IKB Collection Bristol, `GWR Sketchbook 1835', ff 50, 60, 61.
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• I. K. Brunel, 'Facts' [2nd vol.], TNA, RAIL 1149/9, p. 98. IKB gives his analysis of these tests in 'Facts' [1st vol.], TNA, RAIL 1149/8, p. 133.
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• Copy letter, IKB to Grissell and Peto, 8 June 1837, TNA, RAIL 1149/2, p. 241.
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• Copy letter, IKB to Grissell and Peto, 9 June 1837, TNA, RAIL 1149/2, p. 234. It is uncertain whether this refers to Francis Bramah or John Joseph Bramah, his cousin.
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• Ibid; Copy letter, J. Bennett to Grissell and Peto, 24 June 1837, TNA, RAIL 1149/2, p. 245.
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• I. K. Brunel, 'Facts' [6th vol.], TNA, RAIL 1149/13, pp. 190–191. Fig. 8 is from a transcription on p. 118 of a seventh volume of 'Facts' now in IKB Collection Bristol.
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• The Times, 21 Mar 1839, p. 6, col. 3; The Railway Times, 6 April 1839, p. 287, col. 3. A hoisting accident during the night-time shoring up killed a workman.
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• Copy letter, IKB to Grissell and Peto, 20 Mar 1839, TNA, RAIL 1149/5, p. 96.
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• Copy letter, IKB to Grissell and Peto, 29 April 1839, TNA, RAIL 253/107, pp. 69–70.
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• Copy letter, IKB to J. Colthurst, 14 May 1839, TNA, RAIL 1149/5, p. 161.
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• Copy letter, IKB to Grissell and Peto, 2 July 1839, TNA, RAIL 1149/5, p. 177; Details added to Drawing No. 3 of GWR no. 12895, NRGWTPR.
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• Copy letters, IKB to Sir James McAdam, 18 Sept and 21 Oct 1839, TNA, RAIL 253/107, pp. 95, 104.
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• Copy letters, IKB to Sir Robert Smirke, 9 Oct, 4 Nov and 19 Nov 1839, TNA, RAIL 253/107, pp. 102, 105, 106; Details added to Drawing No. 3 of GWR no. 12895A, NRGWTPR.
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• The Times, 21 May 1847, p. 8, col. 2; The Railway Gazette, 22 May 1847, p. 680, col. 3; Railways Inspectorate, Report of Capt. Coddington, 28 May 1847, TNA, MT 6/4/34.
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• 'Returns of Iron Railway Bridges, 1847', TNA, MT 8/1.
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• NRGWTPR, four drawings in GWR Nos. 11141–11144; Great Western Railway Magazine, vol. 18 (1906), p.47.
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• Enacted 21 June 1836 and later renamed the West London Railway.
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• F. W. Simms, ed., The Public Works of Great Britain (London, 1838), plate 73.
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• IKB Collection Bristol, 'Sketchbook 1836', ff 35, 69; copy letter, IKB to W. Hosking, 25 Feb 1837, TNA, RAIL 1149/2, p. 189.
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• Report, IKB to Directors, 29 Dec 1839, TNA, RAIL 250/82, pp. 98–99. The level crossing, eliminated in 1860, is described in D. V. Levien, 'The Hitherto Untold Story of "Punch's Railway", Great Western Railway Magazine, vol. 48 (1936), pp. 275, 325–327.
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• Contract No. 4L, Working Drawing No. 9, NRGWTPR, GWR no.12918.
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• IKB Collection Bristol, 'Sketchbook 1836', f 64. Perhaps an early scheme for the Holloway Viaduct, Bath, this sketch carries the note, 'Cast iron troughs as at Drayton Road bridge'. In the same collection, `GWR Sketchbook 5', if 39–40 made in 1838 have notes of their use in a bridge of which the abutments remain near Ashley Green, Box, Wilts, and another at Box. Trough girder drawings have been found at NRGWTPR under the following GWR plan roll numbers and Contracts: 13118 (Contract 6B, probably Westmoreland Street, Bath), 13147–13149 (7B, Claverton Street—Holloway Viaduct, Bath), 13167 (14B, near Ashley Green, matching Brunel's sketch above), 13172 (15B, at Box again), 13043 (3S, near Knighton or Uffington, Berks, now Oxfordshire), 13024 (1S, Milton, near Didcot), 13015 and 13021 (4R, Cholsey to Didcot) and 12918 (4L, Pocock's Dock, as above). In the Institution of Civil Engineers Archives, J. S. Tucker's Drawing Book, vol. 2, contains four tracings of two versions of trough girders probably for Cricklade Road, Swindon. Doubtless there were others for which drawings have not been found.
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• Contract No. 4R, Working Drawing No. 2, NRGWTPR, GWR no. 13015. The right-hand skew matches the site of Marsh Road Bridge, Didcot, now totally rebuilt.
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• Contract No. 14B, Working Drawings Nos. 7 and 7A, NRGWTPR, GWR no. 13167.
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• IKB Collection Bristol, `GWR Sketchbook 1836', ff 26–27.
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• IKB Collection Bristol, `GWR Sketchbook 7', ff 9–12, 16. Another 2-span Gothic design is shown in ff 7–8.
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• S. Brindle and M. T. Tucker, 'Brunel's Lost Bridge: The Rediscovery and Salvage of the Bishops Road Canal Bridge, Paddington', Construction History, vol. 20 (2004), pp. 45–70.
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• IKB Collection Bristol, 'Misc. Sketches', f 69.
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• I. K. Brunel, 'Facts' [2nd vol.], TNA, RAIL 1149/9, pp. 96–97.
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• IKB Collection Bristol, `GWR Sketchbook 7', ff 13–14.
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• Contract No. 1S, Drawing No. 6, NRGWTPR, GWR no.13026.
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• 'Returns of Railway Bridges, 1847', TNA, MT 8/1.
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• I. K. Brunel, 'Facts' [6th vol.], TNA, RAIL 1149/13, pp. 112–114.
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• 'Returns of Railway Bridges, 1847', TNA, MT 8/1.
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• Contract No. 3S, Drawings Nos. 4 and 4A, NRGWTPR, GWR nos. 13041 and 13043. There are two versions of each drawing with annotations and changes in ink and in pencil. There is evidence of a further problem: it would appear that there was insufficient lateral clearance to the heightened girders, so they were moved further apart, requiring timber decking to be substituted for the prefabricated cast-iron deck plates. TNA, MT 8/1 shows the bridge as built.
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• IKB Collection Bristol, `GWR Sketchbook 1836', ff 59 verso, 60, 61; Contract No. 1C, Drawings Nos 5 and 5A, NRGWTPR, GWR no. 13065. The timber aqueduct appears in the IKB Collection Bristol, `GWR Sketchbook 14', if 5–6, made in 1841, and in a working drawing at NRGWTPR, GWR no. 13063.
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• E. T. MacDermot, op. cit. (1), p. 112.
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• A. Vaughan, A Pictorial History of Great Western Architecture (Oxford Publishing Co., Oxford, 1977), plate 395.
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• Ibid, plates 398–399; Contract No. 10B, one drawing, NRGWTPR, GWR no.13118.
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• I. K. Brunel, 'Facts' [2nd vol.], TNA, RAIL 1149/9, pp. 192–193.
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• I. K. Brunel, 'Facts' [6th vol.], TNA, RAIL 1149/13, pp. 62–87, 90–93, 99, 110–111; repeated in J. S. Tucker's notebook, pp. 244–262, 334–335, Inst. Civ. Eng. Archives. These and the preceding tests were performed at Perry Barrett and Exall's foundry at Reading.
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• J. Colthurst, 'Experiments for determining the position of the neutral axis of rectangular beams of cast and wrought iron and wood. . .', MM. Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng., vol. 1 part 5 (1841), pp. 118–122; I. K. Brunel, 'Facts' [6th vol.], TNA, RAIL 1149/13, pp. 94–109; repeated in J. S. Tucker, op. cit. (66).
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• Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Application of Iron to Railway Structures (London, 1849), pp. 353–359 and plate.
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