Thomas Bouch: The Builder of the Tay Bridge [Paperback]

John Rapley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0752436953 | ISBN-13: 978-0752436951

It was the longest bridge in the world—a true wonder of the time—but within a year it had collapsed. The Tay Railway Bridge was to have been the pinnacle of a career spent building railways and bridges in England and Scotland. When the bridge came crashing down in December 1878, it brought down its designer Thomas Bouch as well. Bouch became famous when he developed the idea of roll-on/roll-off ferries for the Edinburgh and Northern Railway on the river Forth, but it was his Tay bridge and the proposed Forth Railway Bridge that brought him the fame he craved. With the loss of the Tay Bridge, he became a recluse and died in October 1880.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Rapley is an engineer with a particular fascination for Bouch and his bridges. He is acknowledged as the expert on the life of this fascination Cumbrian. He lives in Bournemouth.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Tempus (March 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752436953
• ISBN-13: 978-0752436951
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,501,450 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars tragic legacy, April 17, 2007

By 

Dr. P. R. Lewis "truth hound" (England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Thomas Bouch: The Builder of the Tay Bridge (Paperback)

This is the first serious biography of Thomas Bouch, the builder of the first Tay bridge, which collapsed when an express train was crossing during a storm. The author is an engineer, and provides an excellent account of Bouch's career up to the Tay bridge disaster of December 28th, 1879. It was (and still is) the worst structural disaster in British history, and has been analysed in great detail by several authors, most recently by Lewis in his book Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay (2004). Bouch started his career in the railway industry in the north of England, contributing some fine viaducts (such as that at Belah, but now sadly demolished). He also developed the first "roll-on, roll-off" ferry to cross the Firth of Forth. Elsewhere, however, his railway to St Andrews was built on the cheap from old rail lines, and suffered substantial damage from passing traffic. When it came to building the Tay bridge, he neglected basic design rules, and adopted cast iron columns to supported the very heavy girders needed to cross the Tay estuary. They were made at a local foundry constructed for the bridge at Wormit, but standards were very low, and many faulty columns built into the bridge. Examination of the evidence shows that the high girder section fell because of failure of the supporting towers, probably by a combination of fatigue and loosening of the critical bracing elements. However, John Rapley mis-states the evidence, and attempts to explain the disaster by saying that the train derailed, and so brought the section down. There is very little corroboration for this theory, and it mars what would otherwise be a good account of the accident.