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Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders

Bilston Glen Viaduct, Loanhead is a single track, 15 ft wide viaduct crossing Bilston Burn at a height of 140 ft was erected on the Edinburgh, Loanhead & Roslin branch line worked by the North British Railway. The first viaduct at the site, with six wrought-iron lattice truss spans, was erected in 1872–73 under the direction of Bouch, its designer. It was decided, perhaps from coal working considerations, to reduce the number of intermediate supports from five to two. This was achieved in 1892 using the old bridge as falsework to erect three girder spans, the centre one of which is a massive 330 ft in length and 42 ft deep, with side spans of 60 ft. Both elevations are shown on the drawing. The Company engineers were James Carswell and James Bell. The bridge was made and erected by P. & W. MacLellan, Glasgow.

The viaduct was tastefully refurbished in 1999 for pedestrian use at a cost of about £1.5M by the Edinburgh Green Belt Trust and a set of its original sliding and rocker bearings, which cost £147 000 to replace, are now interpreted at the bridge, and on Heriot-Watt University campus as part of the ICE Museum.

R Paxton and S Shipway 2007

Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.