Forth Rail Bridge Red

After years of repainting we finally managed to get a chance to photograph the old lady with her shinny new paint job. Aparently this new batch of Forth Rail Bridge paint should last for 20 years meaning that all that horrible white scaffolding will not be needed for a while.

Weather was pretty good today, still cold but a decent amount of sunlight.

The bridge was built between 1882 and 1890 not long after the Tay Rail Bridge disaster, meaning that the Forth Rail Bridge was massivley over engineered. Some of the facts and figures are listed below.

Overall length - 2,465 m

Maximum span - 521 m

Height of towers - 104 m

Height above river - 46 m (hope the new aircraft carrier is smaller than this)

Steel in superstructure - 50,000 tons

Number of rivets - 6,500,000

Maximum workforce - 4,600

and all for a cost of £2,500,000

Unfortunately the real cost was in human life, a figure that is still a mystery. Common reports put the number at 57 however in recent times this number is now thought to be nearer 80.