Birmingham�s Railways
The Viaduct to nowhere
| A combination of rivalry and effective parliamentary lobbying by the LNWR led to a series of hurdles being placed in front of the late arrival. The B&OJR was to have two lines into Birmingham. Their main Oxford to Birmingham line was to terminate at Great Charles Street, with a station at Snow Hill, and there was to be a branch from Bordesley to make a junction with the GJR at its Curzon Street terminus. |
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However, the B&OJR
were persuaded to make the Curzon Street link its main line - and
were so keen to get their track into Birmingham that they agreed to
this � but they didn�t read the fine print. Part of the new
agreement prohibited them changing the alignment of its railway on
any land belonging to the
LNWR, or from taking the line across or beyond the point of junction
with any
LNWR
lines. Since the
B&OJR
was not intended to join the LNWR lines, but merely to cross it to
reach the
GJR, this effectively made the formation of any sort of junction
impossible.
B&OJR
were also required to carry any part of its line which crossed land
owned by
LNWR on arches This again made a link with their line into Curzon Street
impossible. By accepting the Curzon Street route as its main line,
B&OJR
had no alternative but to build it. It was clear, however, that it
could not use it, unless the
LNWR made it possible by agreeing some alternative arrangements
(something the LNWR did not want to do). On the other hand, the
LNWR
would vigorously oppose any abandonment proposals, and, since
Parliament did not much favour abandonments, any proposal was
unlikely to succeed.
OutmanoeuvredThe B&OJR recognising that it had been outmanoeuvered, shouldered its burden and in due course built its viaduct, and built it well. The result was the Duddeston Viaduct, an architectural masterpiece of 1,100 yards that went nowhere. By the time it was built, New Street station was finished and the proposed connection was irrelevant. Much of the half mile or so of viaduct (which has never carried a through train) still strides across Bordesley, a monument to the stupidity of short-term power struggles.
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> Digbeth More photographs of this area
