Belah Viaduct

When I was a boy my grandfather worked on the railway as a 'relief signalman'. The 'relief' part meant that he provided holiday or sickness cover for regular signalmen. It was a great job as it meant that he travelled on his motorbike over a wide area to many different signal boxes and during my holidays I often went with him.

One of the 'boxes' that he occasionally worked was at Belah. Belah was I think then the highest viaduct in England; the tracks were 65 metres above the river. It was said that the whole structure was finished above the foundations in just six weeks by sailors - who back in the 1860's of course had to climb high masts every day so were used to heights.

This viaduct was the largest on the Stainmore Line across northern England - a route sadly long closed. It will feature a lot in this blog.

Belah 'box' is just at the far end of the viaduct to the left of the tracks - you can make it out in this picture if you look carefully. To get there you had to park up at Barras station and walk down the line and then over this viaduct, something I did several times. If there was an icy gale blowing or it was a dark moonless night it was quite a scary experience!