LOOKING on the bright side, irritating though Worcester’s current traffic chaos caused by problems with Newtown Road railway bridge may be, things could have been a whole lot worse.

For the city’s first, and much-vaunted, rail bridge was condemned before it had even carried a train.

In fact the first one from Worcester to Hereford could have ended up in the River Severn.

It was back in 1860 that the centrepiece of the one-and-a-half mile viaduct carrying the new Worcester to Hereford railway line from Shrub Hill to Henwick failed to pass muster with government inspectors. Everybody back on the platform!

The officials had spotted a defect in the two cast iron-arched spans and refused to pass them as safe. Temporary piles and struts had to be hastily erected as experts went to work remedying the faults.

But while this short-term crisis was being resolved there were red faces all round and anger at the railway operators who suffered public humiliation as their rolling stock was transported on horse-drawn wagons from Shrub Hill to Henwick station through the city’s streets.

The famous chief engineer to the Great Western Railway, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, had originally advised Worcester to build its Severn rail span as an opening bridge at Diglis Lock. However, commercial interests prevailed and the upstream location near Pitchcroft was chosen instead.

Diglis would have been a better option and cost less money but traders in and around the thriving Lowesmoor Wharf insisted on a rail route close at hand for them.

The first rail bridge and the long viaduct were built by the firm of Stephen Ballard of Colwall, backed by Thomas Brassey, the great railway constructor.

But it proved a challenging project and considerable difficulties were encountered with the bridge foundations which required more than a thousand yards of concrete.

The viaduct included 68 arches, one of which at Croft Road was the first brick arch to be built “on the skew”.

As with all railway projects of the age, the embankment was created by hundreds of pick and shovel navvies who moved across the country like rag-tag armies, leaving railway lines and often no little trouble in their wake.

The passing through of such a large and motley crew of strangers must have been testing to say the least for the citizens of Worcester, especially when drink flowed.

As well as the last-minute delay caused by the inspector’s findings, there was tragedy too.

For as soon as the bridge opened a coal boat collided with the bridge piles and capsized, drowning a woman and her two children who were in the cabin.

The inaugural run set off at 8am on July 25, 1859, the engine decorated with evergreens and small flags. The station was also decorated and crowds lined the route to give the train a rousing send-off.

From a signal box hung a banner which read 'Hope, Peace and Plenty'. There were 58 passengers on board and the journey from Henwick to Malvern Link station took 15 minutes.

The original rail bridge served the city well for nearly half-a-century but eventually in 1904 the arched spans were replaced by a new girder bridge designed by JC Ingles, the GWR chief engineer. Without any last-minute hitches.