The viaduct still has its original riveted wrought iron lattice piers. And its Warren truss design would have been bleeding edge in 1874.
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| Street View, Apr 2010 |
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| dartmoor-railway "Meldon Viaduct (bridge 613) was built in 1874....It was built with riveted wrought iron lattice piers....It was originally built for a single track railway, but in 1878 double track was required, so in effect a second bridge using welded steel piers was built on the east side of the original, and the 2 bridges were braced together. At various times in its life it was reinforced to cope with the weight and speed demands of the traffic of the day. It spans over 160m [525'] and is up to 45m [148'] above the valley floor." |
This photo clearly shows the curve of the viaduct.
This curve explains why some of the reinforcements of the viaduct included adding weight to the outer trestle legs with additional concrete to resist uplift. [dartmoor] The trains going around the curve would produce a lateral force at the top of the towers which would torque the base of the towers. The valley also had high winds which would also produce lateral forces.
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| VistDarmoor |
Random Railways posted four photos with the comment:
A few shots of the wonderful Meldon viaduct. Just West of Okehampton, Devon Opened 1874 as part of the London & South Western line Exeter-Plymouth route round Dartmoor.Double tracked in 1879. Track lifted 1990, now a walking/cycling path as part of the Granite Way
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| Alex Ainscow, Aug 2021 |
Meldon Dam
The Google Maps satellite image as the dam face in a shadow so I fired up Google Earth and found this view.
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| Google Earth, Jun 2018 |
A satellite caught it spilling water in Sep 2017.
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| Google Earth, Sep 2017 |
I saw this dam in the background of some of the viaduct photos, so I checked it out.
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| swlakestrust, cropped and FissPassApp The reservoir has Wild Brown Trout. |
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| HolidayInDartmoor You can walk across the dam and then take a trail down into the valley and under the viaduct, cross the river, and then take a trail out of the valley back to your parking spot. [I believe this is the circular trail for which VisitDartmoor_circuit has a map.] |
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| VisitDartmoor_dam |
I could not find any dimensions for the dam.
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| 1 of 4 photos posted by South West Water Oh damn! 😍 Meldon Dam overflowing today [Mar 1 2020]💧🌧 |
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