Midland Railway Bridge over River Trent at Thrumpton, Nottinghamshire, UK built by Andrew Handyside in 1894

This railway bridge is on the Long Eaton to Leicester section of the Midland Counties Railway and carries trains over the river Trent (aka Trent Lock) at Thrumpton, Nottinghamshire, UK

Here at Trent Lock the three counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire meet up. This is also where the River Soar and River Trent connect with the Trent and Mersey Canal.
Just down river from this bridge is Thrumpton Weir.



The engineer for this was Mr J.A. McDonald.

Work on the original bridge (See technical engraving below, Original bridge at back, Handyside one in foreground) started in June 1838, a foundation stone was laid in December 1838 by its designer Charles Vignoles. This original bridge had three spans of 100 foot flanked
by ten twenty-five foot flood arches on the north side and two on the south. The ironwork for the original bridge was supplied by The Butterly company of Derbyshire and was completed in October 1839.

Here is a technical engraving of the new bridge with the orignal Vignoles bridge behind it.
Drawing from The Engineer January 12th 1894 :




Andrew Handyside were contracted to install the second bridge to cater for the two extra tracks in 1894, you can see Vignoles original bridge in the background behind the new one. It would appear that Andrew Handyside may have replaced the original bridge too at a later date as this is in the same style as the additional 1894 one.

I created a looping Vine video showing this bridge which I took from a train window. you can see the structure :





Here is another view of the Handyside bridge close up



Red Hill Tunnel into which this railway line passes is 133 yards long, 26 1/2 Foot diameter and was built by the contractor Wm. Mackenzie.
The North end of the tunnel is castellated in Norman Style architecture.

Orignally there was just one tunnel here (built 1830's) but in 1895 the line was expanded to four tracks and a second tunnel was was dug adjacent to the original tunnel. The very same castellated entrance was applied to the new one.
The reason that the railway tunnel was castellated was as a concession to the owner of Thrumpton Hall, whose estate this section of railway passes through!

Here is a photograph showing the castellated entrances to the tunnels. The one on the right is the original 1830's tunnel. The one on the left is the younger 1892-93 tunnel to cope with the two extra railway tracks :

The Midland Counties Railway (MCR) was a railway company that existed between 1839 and 1844, connecting Nottingham, Leicester and Derby with Rugby vis a junction with the London and Birmingham Railway.
The MCR system connected with the North Midland Railway and the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway in Derby at what become known as the Tri Junct Station.

Links for further reading :
Charles Blacker Vignoles.
Midland Counties Railway

Map Location:
View my Andrew Handyside World Map to see the exact location of this bridge on the world map. 
My world map is the result of hundreds of hours of research into the company, plotting out each item as I find it. 

Can you help find more Andrew Handyside stuff ?
If anyone out there knows of any other Handyside bridges around the world bearing the Handyside badge that I have not mentioned yet then please get in touch with details, location, photographs etc.

Thanks
Andy