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Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 606447
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/606447
At Dalguise, about six miles north of Dunkeld, the former Highland Railway crosses the Tay on its original viaduct with two iron girder spans of 210 ft and 141 ft respectively, 16 ft deep and 67 ft above the bed of the river. The abutment and pier supports have ornamental castellated towers in masonry abutting the ends of the girders, almost certainlya legacy of Thomas Telford’s influence on Jospeh Mitchell’s practice. In recent years additional diagonal bracing has been added to the top chords of the trusses to improve lateral stability.
The girders are a development in wrought-iron of the earlier American timber lattice trusses of Ithiel Town
patented in 1820. The ironwork was manufactured and erected by Fairbairn Engineering Co., Manchester. The
contractors were Gowans & McKay.
A fascinating difference between Dalguise Viaduct and the Tummel and Logierait viaducts is that instead of castellated masonry towers the latter two were provided with sets of iron towers reminiscent of locomotive funnels. This use of iron was probably an economy measure on the Aberfeldy Branch which operated, none too successfully in commercial terms, for a century, being closed in 1965.
R Paxton and J Shipway
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
