Inter City Bridges

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt in search of iron and rail...

Loco 57311 'Parker' hauls a Glasgow to Euston Pendolino service through Settle station

This cast iron bridge makes a perfect frame for an inter-city passenger train travelling south.  Settle is a busy market town in the Yorkshire Dales.  Although the bridge looks as though it has been here since the 19th Century its originally location was at  Drem Station in Scotland being moved and rebuilt at Settle station in 1993 when the Scottish line was electrified. Before the bridge passengers accessed the station platform over the lines, a so called 'barrow crossing', still used by people in wheelchairs.

Electric loco NS 1600 series inter-city, Moerdijkbrug

In flatter Dutch terrain an inter city train crosses one of the Moerdijk Bridges connecting Dordrecht with the province of North Brabant across the Hollands Diep rivers and estuary. Apparently this area was formed in the floods of 1421 when the dykes failed and altered the geography of the area for ever. It looks very watery

Now I've shown a diesel and an electric train its time for

steam. Alas the Bela Viaduct is no more, a victim of short term thinking and the road lobby in the 1960s when a lot of  branch lines were closed and in this case the viaduct was also demolished. When steam power was eventually removed from the lines all the locos were sent to the scrapyard but some were rescued by enthusiasts and included the  Black Five class shown on the postcard.  Today six of them are certificated for main line running and if lucky one or two of them can sometimes be spotted on the Settle to Carlisle line featured in my first postcard.