Letter: Brunel's billiard table

Correspondent • Published 8 Oct 2009 09:00 2 Comments

Your report on the newly-listed Westbury Lane railway bridge (Chronicle, September 17) describes it as 'Brunel-designed'.

But we are not dealing here with a unique masterpiece such as the famous bridge over the Thames at Maidenhead, but a minor structure for which the great engineer merely sketched standard patterns.

While English Heritage's report rightly says that Westbury Lane bridge is part of a very important early main line, it acknowledges that it was altered in 1890 when a second arch was added, in brick of a different colour; the contrast in the size of the arches neatly illustrates the historically-important change from broad to standard gauge tracks.

But EH was only asked to look at the one bridge, and took no account of the presence of three more almost identical structures in Purley alone (which presumably do not need razing by Network Rail). Putting a dip in the tracks, an alternative to modifying the bridge, would spoil another important aspect of the historic route: the almost-level gradient that Brunel achieved all the way from London to Swindon, which was dubbed 'Brunel's billiard-table'.

Most of the population and most political parties today think that getting more freight onto the railways is a good thing, and if the great man were alive now he would doubtless agree.

Adam Sowan, Thames Valley Campaign for Better Transport

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  james obrien
  Unregistered User
  Oct 11, 10:02
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  I must applaud Adam Sowan on bringing this up. It is the track bed that is of more historical importance. Anyone can build a bridge, not everyone can do what Brunel did with the inclination of the GWR. An average of 1 in 1320 betweeen London and Swindon.
  
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  susie Q
  Unregistered User
  Oct 12, 08:01
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  I have to agree on the freight point. As with wind turbines, sometimes the needs of the country environmentally outweigh the likes and dislikes of a few neighbours.
  
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