Places - Lost in Time: Crumlin Viaduct
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 มี.ค. 2023
- Hello, and welcome back to Places - Lost in Time, a series that looks back on the tale of places and locations that have existing within living memory or photographic record, but are now lost to the pages of history.
This week we travel to South Wales, where, in the small valley coal town of Crumlin, this otherwise inconspicuous settlement once played host to the highest railway viaduct in the British Isles, with the Crumlin Viaduct passing across the Ebbw Vale being a mammoth example of lightweight but sturdy Victorian engineering, with its steel girder and partial masonry construction presenting a structure that was delivered in record time and with huge cost savings, but with no sacrifice of structural rigidity, only for this magnificent bridge to fall victim to the endemically harsh environment of its surroundings, combined with the route it was built to serve losing relevance as railways gave way to roads, and coal gave way to oil.
Special thanks to South Wales Valleys for allowing me the use of several historic clips of the Crumlin Viaduct during its final years of use, and I thoroughly recommend visiting their channel to get some superb glimpses not only into the history of the viaduct itself, but also the railway and mining history of South Wales in general.
All video content and images in this production have been provided with permission wherever possible. While I endeavour to ensure that all accreditations properly name the original creator, some of my sources do not list them as they are usually provided by other, unrelated TH-camrs. Therefore, if I have mistakenly put the accreditation of 'Unknown', and you are aware of the original creator, please send me a personal message at my Gmail (this is more effective than comments as I am often unable to read all of them): rorymacveigh@gmail.com
The views and opinions expressed in this video are my personal appraisal and are not the views and opinions of any of these individuals or bodies who have kindly supplied me with footage and images.
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References:
- The Victorian Web (and their respective references)
- Crumlin Viaduct (and their respective references)
- Caerphilly County Borough council (and their respective references)
- Wikipedia (and its respective references) - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
Can I take a minute to say this channel is epic, please keep it going, I love the way you never quite know what the next upload will be focused on, it always makes my day and never dissapoints whatever the subject is!
Couldn't agree more - always makes my Saturday afternoon a bit more interesting
And nearly at 100k subscribers now too!
Hear hear! 👍
Spot on!
As a miner my grandfather (fathers side) was in a reserved occupation during WW2 but joined the home guard and had to patrol across crumlin viaduct at nights when he was on homeguard duty. My later to be grandmother in order to get a ‘date’ with him used to spend a few hours on such an evening walking across it arm in arm with him - probably not strictly within the army regulations.
I like your wording 😂
It’s sad they didn’t keep the first pier as a memorial to the bridge and railway line rather remove everything but that’s hindsight for you.
I noted the use of destruction in your commentary rather than demolition… very apt.
So cool to watch a mini doc on a place you pass through everyday, something very unexpected! I'm only 28 so I never got to experience it standing but I've stood at the one side of where it would've stopped and it is such an epic view across to the other side, would've been great to cross over it!
My cousin, David, was a Bevin Boy working in the Oakdale Colliery, Blackwood, and ran a football team that played home games nearby the Crumlin Viaduct. As a teenager I began work as a surveyor with Ordnance Survey who were remapping the coal mining areas of South Wales. I was based in Pontypridd in the late 50's, early 60's and it was a long trek home to Torquay via the Aust Ferry or round Gloucester so I would visit David at weekends. I played quite a number of games with his team, and always, as a railway buff, found it a thrill, and even a bit scary I must admit, playing nearly beneath that structure while trains were still passing over it. We used to meet in a cafe before matches and play the flipper machines while drinking coffee. Evenings were spent in Blackwood at the cinema where the tickets cost about 9d or 1/- which was so cheap compared with Torbay at the time.
This video brought back brilliant memories of those days.
Really good video! One minor note on Welsh pronunciation, if it’s spelt ‘goed’ it’s spoken ‘goyd’ - therefore Hengoed and Bargoed are pronounced ‘Hen-goyd’ and ‘Bar-goyd’ etc.
its a synthetic voice, not a human narrator.
I live at Ilkeston, Derbyshire. We have our own still standing viaduct.built almost identically. Although only 60 ft high. It is 1/4 Mile long and called “Bennerley Viaduct”. Many videos on You Tube. And well worth a look
It looks a lot like the Taradale Viaduct in Victoria. Australia. It was also built in the 1850s and still carries a main line today. It has its own Wikipedia page.
Superb film! My father grew up in the shadow of this beauty. We have pictures he took on his Box Brownie when Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren came to film Arabesque. A wonderful structure and a crime that it was lost!
While building the bridge out of iron reduced the cost, it wasn’t a guarantee of strength as we have seen in the past.
Crossing a valley, especially as deep as this one, brought its own problems.
There’s the remains of an iron bridge in the USA which was blown down in a gale (worth covering, the Kinzua Bridge) and, for another example, the Tay Bridge Mk 1.
It's the Kinzua Bridge in Pennsylvania.
@@emilyadams3228 It was one of the subjects featured in the TV series called 'Abandoned Engineering'.
super great train video bro ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Being from nearby Caerphilly and having to visit Crumlin countless times over the years this was a nice surprise to see on your channel. Great quality video as always. ☺️👍
Once again, quality TH-cam viewing. Thank you for another superb video.
Nice video! I just love the steam era with Brunel being my favourite. I live in Chile and the 335ft high Malleco viaduct, constructed in the 1890s, is still in use!
Thank you also for not putting music on a documentary video!
What a cycle track it would've made - like a pier with no show at the end and a big, hard drop if you fall off!
The Crumlin Viaduct Works Company Limited produced the ironwork for the Crumlin Viaduct, they also produced the ironwork for the first Blackfriars Railway Bridge for the London, Chatham and Dover Railway, 120 bridges in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 69 bridges for the Rome and Ancona Railway in Italy, 5 multi-span bridges for railways in India, a 17-span bridge in Pernambuco, Brazil as well as bridges in New Ross, Ireland, the Murray River, Australia and Wolkoff for the Great Russian Railway.
After the Tay Bridge disaster the government set up the Wind Pressure (Railway Structures) Commission. This commission reported back in May 1881. They determined that a wind speed that gave a pressure of 28lb/ft^2 was the maximum a train would allowed to encounter on a viaduct and that the viaduct had to be strong enough to withstand a pressure double that. Hence the stopping of traffic in high winds on viaducts.
The entire railway network had suffered neglect during WW2 and its aftermath. The problem with metal bridges is they suffer from metal fatigue, by the 1950s a well known if not fully understood issue for bridge builders. This bridge and lines like it were in desperate need of strengthening if they were to survive, but with falling traffic levels BR couldn't afford to do this work. The rot set in long before Beeching came along with a government preventing BR from raising prices whilst costs went up. If it wasn't for Beeching we wouldn't have half the railway we still have.
Amazing to see a local lost landmark covered.
This photo illustrates something well, the dead load of the bridge is usually an order of magnitude larger than potential dynamic loads 11:05
Very good point.
Wow what a nice bridge! Shame it was torn down.
Not as fun as an Autobahn though.
My father was based at Pontypool just after the war on the GWR/Western region as a fireman and always spoke with a smile when he mentioned the Crumlin viaduct.
Excellent documentary, as usual. Thanks.
Nice upload, will need to check but this viaduct might share the engineer with another similar but shorter viaduct of that had to have less weight on its foundation. It crossed a flood plane that had underground coal mines, it recently got a full restoration but it shares a lot in its design. What a sight this one would have been though, shame this one was lost.
Edit - Checked Bennerley viaduct didn't share the same engineer but is essentially the same design and materials, there is another viaduct on the edge of Dartmoor, near Okehampton that also has the engineering and materials in common. These are the last two but are scheduled Monuments and kept maintained, shame this one was too far gone.
i live near crumlin and it is a nice village.
Ruairidh - I have been perusing your videos for a few weeks now and all have been excellent. The clear and concise history presented as well as your commentary, sometimes fairly biting when explaining the backstories of the history, is thoroughly enjoyed by this old man in Western Ohio. Marvelous or, as folks say over there in "Jolly Old", brilliant stuff. Keep it coming, my friend.
Fantastic channel. Always something new and interesting presented in a really professional way.
If you haven't done an episode on Belah Viaduct and the Stainmore line, that's a solid concept
marvelous viaduct, explained by a marvelous video, thanks Ruairidh
Another brilliant video. Thanks
Thank you. I've learnt a great deal.
Great video! I would have liked to see it, but since its demise, that will not be possible. Thank you for creating, uploading and sharing!!
Excellent !
Excellent. Thank you.
Fascinating, thank you 🙂
That was excellent, thank you.
Lovely structure. Thanks for in depth technical explanations and moving pictures. Thank heaven they over engineered the Forth Rail Bridge to ensure its permanence. Maybe try a documentary about Bouch's spindly designs for Forth suspension rail bridge or the Solway Firth bridge
Always fascinating material.
Wonderful work.
Fascinating.
Brilliant video Ruairidh, I've seen lots of photographs of the viaduct but hadn't previously realised that it consisted of two separate sections. Thanks for posting this.
I saw this a few times. Saw Arabesque being filmed on it. Saw it being demolished. Sad end to a spectacular sight. I was 4 years old in 1965. It memory is as fresh to day as it'll I'd seen only yesterday.
Great history and technical detail wonderfully articulated for this video. Many thanks for sharing.
This was absolutely fantastic! Might I suggest you do a video on the Kinzua Bridge in Northwest Pennsylvania next? That was quite an important bridge in my area back in the day. Used to connect the Erie main line from New York to Chicago. A big wind storm blew it down in 2003.
That's a fascinating story. I'm sure you've seen various documentaries about it, but some, such as Discovery ones etc, can be almost unwatchable due to their hyping style. A really good one, focusing straightforwardly on the engineering problems arising with the stiffener plates etc (consequent to some degree on a mid-life restructuring?), was produced by The Open University a while ago. The OU's link isn't very good, but if you google "open university kinzua's weakest link", and instead follow the Apple podcast link (although it says it's for iphones, it works fine on Android), third podcast down is a 10 min vid that's very interesting.
@@villiamo3861 that's why I want Mr. MacVeigh to do the Kinzua bridge. Because most documentaries always over-do it.
@@RHTeebs Suggest you look at the OU one; nothing overkeyed there. But, yes, an RMV one would be welcome, too.
Great Channel . Great range of engineering subjects too.
An excellent video! Da iawn.
Fine documentary about an impressive feat of construction
Good stuff 👍👍👍
Nice.
Broomhill Viaduct in Larkhall (South Lanarkshire) which still stands today was the highest viaduct in Scotland. Three miles along the now disused railway line lay also the longest spanning viaduct which was blown up during the mid 1980s.
Great video. Always amazed how much effort and money went into building lines like this, many of which were relatively minor. Testament to both the bravery and recklessness of Victorian/Georgian engineers.
Wonderful Ruairidh, well worth getting out of bed for this morning. Thanks for your time and effort in making this film. I have always admired civil engineers.
I remember it well. We used to live in Trinant in the early 60's and used to play on the viaduct before it was destroyed. Jumping the gaps in the planks on the cat walk being one of the favourites . Don't try this at home kids !
Hello from Kansas🇺🇸
all these places around the world where people are living without a clue of some of the structures that once dominated their towns/regions, that there is color footage of this bridge, but barely a physical trace of it ever existing is so weird
I grew up in the south wales valleys (Caerau/Maesteg) we had so many amazing, beautiful left over buildings, tunnels and bridges form the railway era.... most are now being demolished and removed its very sad to see this history of rail and coal disappearing :(
Pretty sure the most famous use of Welsh coal was letting Henry steam up before he got his new shape 🙂
Hi 🙂 Along similar lines there was a tall spindly viaduct on the Halesowen to Longbridge branch but it also succumbed to demolition. Tends to be remembered by local folks due to works trains for employees of “The Austin” running across it for many years 🙂 That branch is probably worth a story of its own, particularly if you were to include the Longbridge plant’s internal network and the block trains of parts that lasted long enough for EWS Class 66s to be regular traction in the final days. I very much enjoy your balanced and well-researched content, sir 🙂
My father started in Llanhilleth Colliery in 1936 aged 14. He spent first night of WW2 on ARP duty at one end of Crumlin Viaduct. No mention in video of the ammunition trains from the nearby Ordnance factory crossing the viaduct, apparently there are some bomb craters up there but I guess target too difficult for Germans at that stage. I went to school daily on train on that line from Treown crossing Hengoed Viaduct.
Well, i never knew, thanks.
I now live in industrialist Thomas Hill's former home (1770's) , i believe he made his business mining in south Wales, so this part of the world.
Now that’s something from the extraordinary. That viaduct is absolutely tall and thin. Where was this taken.
Might I suggest another railway bridge to be looked at, and that was the one that crossed over the Solway Firth… another bridge lost in time.
The viaduct was used for location shots at the end of the picture "Arabesque", made ca. 1966. Actress Sophia Loren may have actually set foot on it during a chase scene.
My father was station master at Crumlin High Level in the mid 1950s. I walked that bridge with him many times , both at rail level and the catwalk where you see Loren and Peck running.
Nice good da iawn
1857-1965 worth every penny the same as the Kinzua bridge which lasted 121 years ❤❤
Brilliant video, Hengoed is pronounced Hen-Goid
And Rhymney is pronounce 'Rum-nee'. I was trying to decide whether the entire commentary is computer generated speech.
I wonder if any of the deck was preserved.
I would've left one of the piers, probably the Isabella Pier, standing. That's a compromise between "We must preserve this, it's historically significant" and "We must destroy this, it's expensive to maintain and useless".
It's a shame they hadn't the money to preserve this historic structure, even if it was completely understandable.
As an aside, at 14:00 It's probably worth mentioning that in addition to the expanding road network, new roads were of particular importance to this area at the time because rubber wheels allow you to make use of roads that are much steeper than railways can achieve, negating the need for this sort of structure in the first place.
Imagine living beneath the crumblin' viaduct. My crowning achievement was Goring and Streatley Bridges over the Thames. Hasn't required the slightest maintenance in 30 years. Not even paintwork. Quality.
Soo close to 100k
You should do something related to the Lackawanna Cutoff (either one).
How about doing a series on lost bridges, such as the lost other Forth bridge at Alloa or the huge trestle bridge on the Stainmore line.
Or the one across the Solway
14/4 23, When does a structure stop as a Bridge & become a Viaduct ? Span is obviously longer on Viaducts. Would like to have an lan Allan abc type spotters book for all these remaining UK structures still in use. Monuments to their Builders.
Jeez the colour of the river on colour film….
That was one long program on just a bridge. Interesting though.
Can you do something on the bus company Jones of Aberbeeg? One of the few independent UK bus companies that ended up in the National Bus Company (sounds of Angels singing!) and retained their blue livery amongst the NBC Poppy Red and NBC Leaf Green, until it was finally killed by the creation of National Welsh in 1979.
You should do a places lost in time covering Westminster, there’s a place that’s most definitely living in the wrong century 🥸🤣
As a 10 year old I watched the viaduct being demolished. One of the cables from a tower to a winch on the side of the hill snapped and hit an elderly man standing near me on his head. It caused a huge gash and there was lots ion blood. I don’t know if he survived.
In Motion history can you do the class 91 please.
Hi!
16:00 “The Ministry of Housniz ……it was spelt like that on the Van “…
Thanks, Doug - you know your classics! 👍
One politician was on the hustings when someone shouted at him "What are you going to do about 'ousing." The famous reply was "put an H in front of it".
ok so not related to the video at all but how tf do you pronounce ur first name? I've been trying to figure it out for years. Keep doing the wonderful job ur doing btw, I love ur content
Rory (Ruairidh is the Gaelic spelling)
@@stewy62 interesting and wacky, I love it! thank you! I was thinking like a Rudyard situation but I had no idea
Pity about the pronounceation of Welsh words but very good film
Such a shame that all we have left is a few videos
Very interesting information about a fascinating structure. What's the betting British Rail inflated the cost of preservation, making demolition the best option? That's how they justified closure of the old North East line from Barnard Castle to Tebay over Stainmore summit. Belah Viaduct was the victim here. Of course, Transport Minister Ernest Marples owning a company which built motorways might have had something to do with it, too.
7/10 for your Welsh pronunciations
a web of lies tore down a lovely structure
Am I able to mail you a new microphone?
I will give you a Blue Snowball for free.
i love the microphone sounds old like the footage
the audio does seem a little worse than average in this one
@@m.streicher8286 the last few have been like this.
Will it help his pronunciation of Welsh place names?
Something of this scale would take 10 years to build now lol
Not "by far the highest" - just by four feet. The Belah viaduct in Cumberland was 196 feet high
I think the viaduct should be rebuilt, regardless of cost or utility.
An interesting video considering the material available. Have spent my youth in Ebbw Vale I managed to see it before it was pulled down. How many words per minute does the narrator manage. God he must have been out of breath. The pronunciation of local place names would have been so so much better had the producer spoken to someone who lived there.
Great video and informative but you pronunciation of place names could do with a bit of work 😊
Hengoed not Hengood pronounced Hen Goed as in (goed)elic .
Please work on your Welsh pronunciation. That said, I thought this was an excellent and informative video.
Lady Isabella Fitzmaurice was married to a guy called Lord Maurice Fitzisabella. . . . . . . . . . . I'll get my coat
good video, but they could have got a Welsh Narrator who could pronounce the Welsh names much better.
But how many lives were lost in its construction, didn't count that cost in those days?!
There was one fatality see the website.
It's pronounced Ebba not eboo
As always the question becomes, when we invent time travel who will be the first person to go back and smack beeching and make him see the damage he does to this country at the worst time possible
Britain was broke at the time and all government expenditure was being cut back. Not just the railways, but the air force, the navy, infrastructure spending, etc. Taxes were already very high, so a LOT of things had to be cut. Viewed through the perspective of the financial crisis of the time, there was no alternative to something like the Beeching Axe.
The synthetic voice still speaks way too fast, which gets on my nerves after a couple of minutes…