Woolcott Street Bridge, Waverton

The original bridge at this site, built in 1893 was a through riveted girder bridge with ballasted track carried on a corrugated steel floor. In 1993 the bridge was no longer serviceable and was replaced with a recycled through girder bridge with a floor composed of cross girders and stringers.

The bridge had been previously used at Dombarton, between Unanderra and Summit Tank on the Unanderra to Moss Vale line as part of a unique crossing loop provided in 1943 during the Second World War to increase line capacity. Because of the difficult terrain the bridge was skewed with the line across it set on a curve, which the deck stingers followed. This crossing loop arrangement was replaced with double-track in 1987, when the bridge became surplus but was stored for re-use rather than scrapped.

The main girders for the bridge were already in existence in 1943 when they were requisitioned for the urgent construction of the Dombarton loop. They had been fabricated in the late 1930s for use as a bridge across the Goulburn River on the then incomplete and subsequently construction-abandoned Sanday Hollow to Maryvale line. Here they would have been part of a deck-girder bridge but at Dombarton they were used as a through-girder bridge.

The Woolcott Street bridge, then known as the Carr Street bridge, before intense settlement of the area. Cornelius Cardew ARHSnsw 034388 .

A steam-hauled commuter train approaching Waverton across the then Carr Street bridge after collecting its passengers from Milsons Point in 1922. During its life the name of the street below the bridge has been changed. RS Fookes' Collection ARHSnsw 005414

The replacement bridge at Carr Street, planned in 1913, was to be constructed with cross girders and stringer girders under the tracks. ARHSnsw collection.

Woolcott Street Bridge after its replacement. The new span is single track only. ARHSnsw 235237

The span in its second use at Dombarton, apparently soon after construction. The track on the right is the line from Unanderra. An uphill train would then reverse under the bridge to a siding from where it could run forward back onto the mainline and over the bridge. About 1943. LG Poole Collection ARHSnsw 048738

The track arrangements at Dombarton as displayed on the diagram in the signal box. ARHSnsw 737335 Noel Reed

The Dombarton bridge was skewed with the stringer girders made to follow the curve of the track. ARHSnsw collection

Although more work was done in the early 1950s and this photo was taken in 1968, by 1942 significant work had been done on the Sandy Hollow Railway such that completed steel girders were on site or fabricated in shops, available for commandeering to other more urgent projects, such as the bridge at Dombarton. Peter Sage ARHS 553072

The girders would have been used as a deck span at Sandy Hollow. ARHSnsw collection

The track at Waverton is straight and at midspan it is decidedly displaced to the left relative to the stringers as shown by the misalignment with the intersection of the diagonals of the floor bracing and the asymmetry of the four rails (two running, two check) with the stringers. Bill Phippen

Although taken in 1967, many years after the span for Dombarton was 'borrowed', and not of an 80ft span, this photo well illustrates the advanced state of construction which the railway reached before its abandonment. The original intention was to use the 80-foot spans as deck girders like these at Kerrabee. Peter Sage ARHSnsw 553053

The new single-track bridge as it exists at Woolcott Street occupies well more than half of the brick abutment which once carried a double-track bridge. Bill Phippen

The bridge at Woolcott Street as it presently exists. More closely spaced web stiffeners are required to carry the large sheer forces at the abutments. The span always had these, riveted in place, but they were lost when the bridge was shortened. The replacements are welded. Bill Phippen

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Location map, Woolcott Street Bridge.

References:
Phippen, Bill, Proposal to Nominate as Item of Engineering Heritage Interest, February 2024.

Phippen, Bill, Wolcott Street Bridge, February 2024.