ABSTRACT

I T had not been until the year 1849 that any active steps had beentaken towards the making of the sixty miles of " towns line " between Peterborough and Retford. At the end of that year, however, a commencement had been made at some of its heaviest points, under a contract let to Mr. Jackson, and so by the time of the opening from London in 1850 good progress could be reported on its heavier cuttings, its bridges, and its two tunnels-at Stoke and at Peascliffe. About this time, also, two further contracts had been let-to Messrs. Pearce and Smith and to Messrs. Oldham-and a little later the construction of the large bridge across the Trent navigation at Newark had been entrusted to Messrs. Rennie and Logan ; so that during the autumn and winter of 1850 work had been going on throughout its whole length. In the spring of 1851 Mr. Joseph Cubitt had reported that completion by the end of that year might be looked for ; but an almost continuous rainfall during the month of July had upset this calculation, and in August, 1851, there had been no prospect of the tunnels-which were the key to the whole-being completed before the following spring. Meanwhile, however, the station works had been commenced and rapid progress made with the Newark bridge, the span of which-262 feet-was to be longer than that of any other bridge yet built for the Company. The type of design which Mr. Cubitt had chosen for it was quite unique, being that known as the " Warren Truss," which has not been adopted elsewhere either before or since ; nor was the engineer here content, as he had been at Bardney and other places on the loop line, with using timber wholly for the material. At Newark the floor of the bridge only was being made of timber. For the upper part, which may be described as a series of equilateral triangles, fastened at their apices by pins, cast and wrought iron was being employed.