Calstock Viaduct Arches Through Trees Devon And Cornwall Border

Title

Calstock Viaduct Arches Through Trees Devon And Cornwall Border

Artist

Richard Brookes

Medium

Photograph

Description

The huge Calstock Viaduct provides an impressive backdrop towering over trees by the River Tamar, the border between Devon & Cornwall, SW England, UK. It is now a Grade II listed building. Built by John Lang between 1904-07 as part of the Plymouth, Devonport and South West Junction Railway which had bought the East Cornwall Mineral Railway in 1894. From the protected building heritage listing its architectural construction and details comprise of "precast concrete block, manufactured on site in the casting yard on the Devon side of the viaduct. The viaduct has twelve round arches, with rectangular plan tapered piers, in rusticated blocks, with rounded cutwaters. The arches have imposts and voussoirs, plain parapet and coping; stepped corbel between each pair of arches, forming refuges in the parapet". It is made out of 11,148 concrete blocks, has 12 x 60 ft. spans, a length of 800ft (240m) and is 120ft (37m) high. A steam powered lift, one of the highest in the country, was used to lift and lower wagons to the quay 113ft (34m) below until it was dismantled in 1934. Wagons with goods from the mines around Gunnislake and Callington were brought down the hillside on a 0.4 miles (0.6 km) cable-worked incline with a gradient of 1 in 6 (17%). A rail service still runs over the viaduct on the picturesque Tamar Valley Line from Gunnislake to Plymouth. Shot taken from the Devon side opposite Calstock Quay in March.

Uploaded

March 31st, 2019

Statistics

Viewed 861 Times  -  Last Visitor from Syosset, NY on 04/24/2024 at 10:01 PM

Colors

Embed

Sales Sheet