About Coalbrookdale Viaduct

Although the main line between Shrewsbury and Birmingham was completed by Thomas Brassey in 1849, it wasn't until the 1860s that standard gauge railways began to penetrate the Ironbridge Gorge - primarily to secure goods traffic, rather than to carry passengers. A branch line from the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway was opened to Coalport, and the Severn Valley Railway was constructed from Hartlebury in Worcestershire to Shrewsbury, passing right through the Gorge, with a station immediately to the south of the Iron Bridge.

This line killed off the surviving river traffic carried by the Severn trows. The railway which passes through Coalbrookdale and across the Coalbrookdale Viaduct was opened in 1864, and formed part of a through route from Wellington, via Much Wenlock to Craven Arms. For much of its working life it was operated by the Great Western Railway and subsequently the Western Region of British Railways. Its route included stations at Wellington, Ketley, Horsehay & Dawley, Doseley, Lightmoor and Coalbrookdale. Like most branch lines in the area, it closed for passengers in the early 1960s, though part of it still carries coal trains across the Coalbrookdale Viaduct adjacent to the Museum of Iron and thence over the Albert Edward Bridge (see entry) to Ironbridge Power Station.

The Coalbrookdale Viaduct is a brick-built, twenty six-arched, structure that lies close to the cast iron Albert Edward Bridge (see entry) and alongside the original Abraham Darby furnaces.

Latterly, the Telford Steam Railway - a heritage railway formed in 1976 and located at Horsehay, Telford - is based at Horsehay's goods transhipment shed. Built in 1860, this had originally permitted the transfer of goods from the Wellington and Severn Junction Railway (W&SJR) to the Coalbrookdale Company's narrow gauge plateway system. TSR currently operates on a 3/4 mile inverted-'Y' -shaped section of line with the southern entrance to Heath Hill tunnel at the base of the 'Y', to the north, and stations at Spring Village and Horsehay & Dawley at the ends of the two arms, to the south. An extension of the railway's regular operations began in 2008, with earthworks dug for a new station at Lawley Common, part of Telford and Wrekin Council's redevelopment of the Lawley area.

When the extension north to Lawley Common is complete, TSR intends to extend south beyond Doseley Halt, build a new bridge over the A4169 and continue to the Ironbridge Gorge passing through Coalbrookdale and eventually onto the power station site at Buildwas. The extension south of Lightmoor is dependent upon the eventual closure of Ironbridge Power Station, and the rationalisation of Network Rail's line between Lightmoor Junction and Buildwas.

This rationalisation took place in October 2006 resulting in the uphill line being taken out of use; the remaining downhill line becoming a bi-directional extension of the existing single line from Madeley Junction. Network Rail have left the uphill line in place which TSR plans to use as its route into the Ironbridge Gorge, including an extension over the Coalbrookdale Viaduct - and across the Albert Edward Bridge - onto the power station site at Buildwas, when the latter closes.