Have a guess. Go on. Bet you’re wrong. Our rail elevation correspondent Angus Young has done an inventory.
We are all familiar with the crossings over the River Hull and the rather large suspension bridge spanning the Humber estuary. In comparison, however, the many and varied bridges in the city forming part of the Hull docks railway freight line get little attention. They cross roads, waterways, cycle routes and even another railway line. So here’s an overdue appreciation of this collection of sturdy structures which keep trains running on the elevated line to and from the port.
First of all, how many bridges are there within the city boundary?
Having compared notes with erstwhile bridge expert and photographer Rich Duffy-Howard, we reckon there are a grand total of 24. They range from old rusty ones (Boothferry Road) to relatively new shiny ones (Spring Bank West and James Reckitt Avenue – both installed in 2013 at a cost of £4.2m and £1m respectively).
There’s also the one struck most by lorries unable to squeeze under it (Stoneferry Road) and the one plagued by pigeon droppings falling on pedestrians below (Chanterlands Avenue).
Above Beverley Road, there’s one with a couple of abandoned railway carriages underneath previously used as a bar while no fewer than three take trains over drains. Another (between Perth Street West and Spring Bank West) runs above the entirely separate Hull to Bridlington rail line.
My personal favourite is the only bridge which isn’t a fixed structure and is quite hard to spot despite being one of the largest on the docks freight line. Officially known as Hull Bridge, the crossing over the River Hull is actually a swing bridge and both the bridge and its operating cabin are Grade II listed to reflect their historic importance. With the steep recent decline in river traffic it rarely swings these days and can only be briefly glimpsed while travelling down Bankside. With nearby sections of the riverside mostly inaccessible, views of the bridge are limited. That’s a shame because it’s an attractively curved mass of riveted steel, known in the bridge-building world as Lattice Truss Bowstring. Think Tyne Bridge on a smaller scale and you get the idea. The bridge swings on a central roller pivot carried on round cast-iron posts which form a hollow pier sunk into a riverbank.
With the exception of the new Spring Bank West bridge which replaced an original structure, all the bridges were opened in 1885 on completion of the line by the new Hull, Barnsley and West Riding Junction Railway and Dock Company. Most were built with brick arches and abutments while the bridge spanning Beverley Road just north of the Queens Road junction was accompanied by two-storey brick building with access to the elevated track from the first floor. At the time, the line effectively circled most of built-up Hull. For example, the track now crossing Chanterlands Avenue was originally laid on a raised embankment. The road currently running underneath it was constructed in the 1930s by effectively digging a cutting under it.
The railway company began with large amounts of debt but managed to operate until 1921 when it became part of North Eastern Railways. Thirty years later, a single sided station halt was built on the line next to Hull City’s Boothferry Park stadium to ferry fans to and from the ground. The ‘soccer special’ service ended in 1986.
Today the docks line in Hull remains freight-only. Dreams of adding a future mass transit passenger service on the elevated route still seem light years away.