Geograph - photograph every grid square

Railway Bridges South of St Albans City Station

A close look at the bridge over the Alban way, formerly the Great Northern railway line from Hatfield, will reveal that it was built in two parts, see;
TL1506 : Railway Bridge over the Alban Way TL1506 : St Albans: Railway bridge over a now dismantled railway (1) TL1506 : St Albans: Railway bridge over a now dismantled railway (2)

The nearby bridge over London Road is clearly in two parts as there are two separate spans:
TL1506 : St Albans: A1081 London Road railway bridge

The reason for the two separate building sessions goes back to the building of the line, when the Midland Railway didn't have enough money to build the line completely in one go. So they bought enough land all the way into London for the intended 4 lines. South of St Albans City they only built the passenger lines, which are now the fast lines. North of St Albans there was a single Up Goods line to mainly bring coal to London from the Nottingham coal fields.
By the 1890s the success of the railway and sufficient funds allowed the Midland Railway to add a down goods line northwards from St Albans and to start extending the goods lines southwards. The goods lines south of St Albans were opened in various stages starting in 1894 and completed in 1895 when the newer Elstree tunnel was opened for traffic.
In 1906 various modifications were carried out and the goods lines became slow lines and were used for passenger trains as well as goods, as they are still today!