Tramrail bridges
The timber that Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) harvests every day – around 8000 tonnes – helps to underpin Scotland’s forestry and timber processing sector.
The forests providing that timber were planted 40 or more years ago with no small amount of help from Britain’s trams…or at least the tram rails.
From the 1930s onwards, trams began to disappear from cities across the UK as car ownership increased and buses became a more attractive, cheaper option to tram networks.
It resulted in thousands of tram rails being removed from city streets.
Graeme White, FLS Design Engineer, said;
“Since the Forestry Commission was first established just over 100 years ago, Scotland’s foresters have had to contend with some rough and rugged terrain.
“A lot of bridges have had to be built over the years to provide access to the plantable land. We currently maintain about 1800 bridges of various sizes that provide operational as well as recreational access to the forests and land we look after.
“In amongst them are 322 ‘tramrail bridges’ that were all built in the 1950’s and 60’s, using around 6000 of the rails that were being lifted out of the roads of major cities across the UK, including Glasgow, Liverpool and others.
“We’re not quite sure how the then Forestry Commission ended up with all of these rails but it was a great way to recycle them.”
The bridges were formed by laying 17 or 19 rails (depending on span) across the gap between abutments with concrete then poured over the top of the rails to form a bridge.
Although basic in design these bridges were more than adequate to deal with the forestry vehicles and squads engaged in planting and harvesting.
Graeme added;
“The tram lines were set down in the late 19th century so many of the rails are between 100 and 150 years old but the bridges that were made from them are still holding up well today.
“They are ageing much more slowly than might have been expected, which luckily means we won’t have to think about having to replace them all at once.”
With around 58 tramrail bridges still in existence in forests in England, and 68 in forests in Wales, inspection findings and retro-fit techniques are a regular topic of conversation at events such as the annual Forestry Civil Engineering conference.
Notes to editors
- Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) manages forests and land owned by Scottish Ministers in a way that supports and enables economically sustainable forestry; conserves and enhances the environment; delivers benefits for people and nature; and supports Scottish Ministers in their stewardship of Scotland's national forests and land.
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