Today I visited what has become a bit of a local landmark - the Ouse Valley Viaduct. Actually my wife has been keen to visit this since she saw pictures of its distinctive piers, and since we were in the area we made a detour.
This viaduct on the London-Brighton line was built in 1839-42, early in the railway building boom, and is built in an elegant and ornate style. Its features include limestone capping and parapets, with little "pagodas" at the ends, and of course the oval cut-outs in the piers.
It is these that have become so instagram-able in recent years, and looking through the length of the viaduct is quite surreal. This feature helps make the viaduct look slender and elegant.
I was fascinated by the variety of brickwork - I presume due to repairs over the years, rather than the orginal bricklayers all using their own favourite bricks?
I was also interested in the detailing of the arches and parapets, the weathering, and the odd bush...
Check out the little pagodas at the ends of the parapets. The class 37 "tractor" made a nice change from the stream of EMUs, though I'm not sure what it's doing there without a train!
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