Unused railway bridge, Lea Bailey
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Unused railway bridge, Lea Bailey by John Winder as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
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Unused railway bridge, Lea Bailey
Image: © John Winder Taken: 24 May 2020
I say "unused" rather than "disused" because this line was never opened. The picture shows a bridge carrying the Drybrook road over the course of the old (deep breath) Mitcheldean Road & Forest of Dean Junction Railway (MR&FDJR) which spent all its capital on ink to write down its name before turning to the Great Western Railway for help in completing their line, which was intended to link up the GWR's route from Bullo Pill with the same company's Gloucester-Hereford line at Mitcheldean Road. Anyway, the GWR did indeed finish the line (including this handsome stone bridge), but never opened it for traffic other than a few test trains; the rails on the section north of Drybrook were lifted in 1917 and never relaid. The lengths of rail in the foreground are part of the nearby Lea Bailey Light Railway, a narrow gauge line built on the old formation.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.871757
Longitude
-2.51892