Meldon Viaduct

In the 19th century, the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) was in competition with the Great Western Railway (GWR) to provide passenger trains from London to Devon and Cornwall. But the South Devon Railway, an associate of the GWR, had already built a line from to along the south coast and the south side of Dartmoor, under the direction of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Thus the LSWR, and its engineer, William Galbraith, were left with a route from Exeter that would have to skirt around the north and west sides of Dartmoor. Meldon Viaduct was begun in 1871, and opened on 12 October 1874, linking Okehampton and Lydford (Lidford). It was part of the LSWR's routes to Plymouth (from 1876) and…

The viaduct is constructed mainly of wrought iron. It is one of two surviving wrought iron truss and trestle railway bridges in the United Kingdom, between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, which differs by having lattice trusses (meaning the diagonals are criss-crossed). The structure is actually two viaducts side-by-side. Each viaduct consists of six spans of , bridged by a pair of Warren trusses at 5 ft centres, which are supported by five lattice trestles. others welded steel (despite being clearly riveted and bolted).}} of almost identical construction was erected on its south-east side, from the original one, with the gap spanned by bracing and timber decking.