Parkhead Viaduct

Parkhead Viaduct
Carries	Railway
Crosses	Dudley Canal
Locale	Dudley, West Midlands
Material	Stone
Construction end	1880 (1880)
Coordinates	52°29′55″N 2°05′58″W / 52.498711°N 2.099508°W / 52.498711; -2.099508Coordinates: 52°29′55″N 2°05′58″W / 52.498711°N 2.099508°W / 52.498711; -2.099508

Parkhead Viaduct is a railway viaduct located in Dudley, West Midlands, England. The original viaduct was a wooden structure erected in 1850 to carry the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway over Parkhead Locks on the Dudley Canal, near to the southern mouth of the Dudley Tunnel. The current brick viaduct was built in 1880 and it is believed that the original wooden structure is still encased within its successor.^[1]

Closure

The last passenger train crossed Parkhead Viaduct in 1964 but it remained open to goods trains until 1993, when the section of the railway between Walsall and Brierley Hill was closed. The section of track over Parkhead Viaduct was removed in 1999 due to the construction of a new road bridge over the line approximately 100 yards (100 m) away. The structure of the viaduct is still intact, but has fallen into disrepair.

Midland Metro

Parkhead Viaduct is a listed structure, so its distinctive arches are to be retained when the overhead deck is replaced during the development of the Wednesbury to Brierley Hill extension to the Midland Metro, which is planned to open in the mid-to-late 2010s.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Parkhead Junction, Parkhead Locks and Parkhead Viaduct.