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Birmingham’s Railways
The Viaduct to nowhere
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combination of rivalry and effective parliamentary lobbying by the LNWR
led to a series of hurdles being placed in front of the late arrival. The B&OJR
was to have two lines into Birmingham. Their main Oxford to Birmingham line was
to terminate at Great Charles Street, with a station at Snow Hill, and there was
to be a branch from Bordesley to make a junction with the GJR
at its Curzon Street terminus.
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However, the
B&OJR were persuaded to make the Curzon Street link its main line -
and were so keen to get their track into Birmingham that they agreed to this –
but they didn’t read the fine print. Part of the new agreement prohibited them
changing the alignment of its railway on any land belonging to the LNWR, or from taking the
line across or beyond the point of junction with any LNWR lines. Since the B&OJR
was not intended to join the LNWR lines, but merely to cross it to reach the GJR,
this effectively made the formation of any sort of junction impossible. B&OJR
were also required to carry any part of its line which crossed land owned by LNWR
on arches This again made a link with their line into Curzon Street
impossible. By accepting the Curzon Street route as its main line, B&OJR had no
alternative but to build it. It was clear, however, that it could not use it,
unless the LNWR made it possible by agreeing some alternative arrangements
(something the LNWR did not want to do). On the other hand, the LNWR
would vigorously oppose any abandonment proposals, and, since Parliament did not
much favour abandonments, any proposal was unlikely to succeed.
Outmanoeuvred
The
B&OJR
recognising that it had been outmanoeuvered, shouldered its burden and in due
course built its viaduct, and built it well. The result was the Duddeston
Viaduct, an architectural masterpiece of 1,100 yards that went nowhere. By the time it was built, New Street station was finished and
the proposed connection was irrelevant. Much of the half mile or so of viaduct
(which has never carried a through train) still strides across Bordesley, a
monument to the stupidity of short-term power struggles.
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