Great Western Viaduct, Redruth Cornwall

The first railway arrived in Redruth in May 1838 in the form of the Hayle Railway.

This was taken over by the West Cornwall Railway in 1846 with the aim of taking the rails west to Penzance. They built a viaduct above the streets of Redruth. It took until 1867 for through trains to reach Penzance since the Cornwall Railways was built to standard gauge and the Great Western to broad gauge - the answer was dual gauge.

The original viaduct was built in timber to designs by I. K. Brunel and was replaced by the current structure in 1888. It was originally single track for the dual gauge, but after the Great Western gave up the broad gauge in 1892, it was doubled.