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T.D. Kerr: The Viaduct 

Poster, Southern Railway, "The Viaduct, Progress Posters, No.3", by T.D. Kerr, 1925. Coloured lithograph depicting a train of Pullman cars crossing the Ouse Valley viaduct between Haywards Heath and Balcombe, with a trail of smoke floating above the carriages. Text reads "The Southern Railway is spending a quarter of a million pounds on rebuilding and strengthening its bridges all over the system, to take the heavier and faster engines and trains". One of a series of posters produced by the Southern Railway to advertise improvements to rolling stock and infrastructure.  The Ouse Valley Viaduct is a railway bridge on the London-Victoria-Brighton railway line that crosses the River Ouse north of Haywards Heath. Its span is 450 meters, its maximum height is 29 meters, and it comprises 37 round-arched arches; the piers themselves are pierced with round-arched vaults. The bridge was designed by John Urpeth Rastrick in collaboration with David Mocatta, the architect of the London-Brighton line. Built between 1841 and 1842, it required the shipment of eleven million bricks from Holland, supplied by ships sailing up the Ouse (via Newhaven and Lewes). This structure, restored in 1996, is a Grade II listed building in the United Kingdom. The viaduct is still in operation, with nearly 110 trains per day serving West Sussex to London, Bedford, and Manchester.

(Source: Science Museum Group Collection)

April 6th,  2025

 

 
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