Brunel's Broad Gauge Railway

Brunel promotes the seven-foot broad gauge as a means of providing stability, speed and passenger comfort.

Brunel adopts a broad railway gauge of seven feet and one quarter inch for the Great Western Railway.

Brunel's broad gauge determines the generous track widths and spans required for many early Great Western bridges.

Brunel planned the route through Chippenham to maintain gentle gradients suitable for broad gauge locomotives.

Contractors worked on embankments bridges and cuttings needed to carry broad gauge trains through the Avon valley.

The structure reflects Brunel's broad-gauge railway design.

The bridge preserves Brunel's early broad-gauge engineering approach.

The first working section of the Great Western Railway demonstrates Brunel's broad-gauge track and early bridge designs.

The temporary terminus served trains built to Brunel's unusually wide railway gauge.

Brunel's river crossings were designed for the wider track gauge adopted by the Great Western Railway.

The broad gauge alignment relied on embankments to maintain manageable gradients beside sections of the Avon.

The new section used Brunel's broad gauge track system rather than the standard gauge used on many other railways.

Railway structures near Saltford carried Brunel's broad gauge line through the Avon valley.

The elegant masonry crossing carries Brunel's broad-gauge railway.

The Great Western section between Bristol and Bath opens, using Brunel's broad gauge and associated masonry structures.

The new route's masonry structures supported regular broad gauge passenger and goods trains through the Avon valley.

The route's bridges and structures reflected the generous clearances adopted for Brunel's broad gauge trains.

Earlier survey work by Brunel helps shape plans for extending broad-gauge railway communication from Exeter toward Plymouth.

Brunel defends the Great Western broad gauge as Parliament regulates the gauges permitted on future railways.

Brunel's broad-gauge engineering links major South Wales industrial routes with the wider Great Western system.

Completion of the Tamar crossing allows the Cornwall Railway to connect directly with the South Devon broad-gauge network.