Ballochmyle Viaduct
The highest railway bridge in Britain and the world's largest masonry arch
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Near Mauchline, Ayrshire
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The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) served a triangular area of south-west Scotland between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle. Its title followed an amalgamation in 1850; it later became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway at the 1923 grouping of the railways. The main line ran from Glasgow along the west coast and to Gretna. The railway also served Paisley, Greenock, Ardrossan, Troon and the ports on the west coast, between which it had regular steamer services. It also owned the harbours at Troon and Ayr. The headquarters were at St Enoch Station, Glasgow and the main locomotive works at Kilmarnock. In 1921 the railway comprised 1,128 miles of line.
This superb structure carried the Glasgow & South Western Railway's main line from Carlisle to Glasgow via Dumfries & Kilmarnock over the River Ayr 1.6 km south of Mauchline.
With three 15.2 m (50 ft) spans on either side of a large central span of 55.2 m (181 ft) and 53.3 m (175 ft) high, this is not only the highest railway bridge in Britain, but it also has the largest masonry span in the world.
The stone bridge was begun in 1846 and was completed in less than two years (March 1848), but the railway itself was not completed until 1850. The stone was brought from Dundee.
It is a tribute to John Miller the engineer that it is still in operation and bearing weights and speeds never imagined when it was built.
By road: West of A76, just south of Mauchline
Biddle, Gordon, Britain's Historic Railway Buildings, Oxford University Press, ISBN-10: 0198662475 (2003)
Biddle, Gordon & Nock, O.S., The Railway Heritage of Britain : 150 years of railway architecture and engineering, Studio Editions, ISBN-10: 1851705953 (1990)
Campbell, K. T. S., Ayrshire: A Historical Guide, Birlinn Ltd, ISBN-10: 1841582670 (2003)
Smith, M., British Railway Bridges & Viaducts, Ian Allan, ISBN 0 7110 2273 9 (1994)
Wilson, Robert, Guide to the South-Western Railway and Surrounding Neighbourhood in Ayr and Dumfriesshire Via the Glasgow And South-Western Railway (1852), The Grimsay Press, ISBN-10: 1845300793 (2010)
Ayrshire Railway Preservation Group
Forgotten Relics - Listed Bridges and Viaducts