Moulsford Railway Bridge, known locally as "Four Arches" bridge is actually a pair of parallel bridges located a little to the north of Moulsford

Moulsford

Moulsford is a village and civil parish in South Oxfordshire. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire to the county of Oxfordshire, and from Wallingford Rural District to the district of South Oxfordshire....

 and South Stoke

South Stoke, Oxfordshire

South Stoke is a village and civil parish on the River Thames, about north of Goring-on-Thames in South Oxfordshire.The parish includes the hamlet and manor house of Littlestoke, north of the village.-Manor:...

 in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....

, UK. It carries the Great Western Main Line

Great Western Main Line

The Great Western Main Line is a main line railway in Great Britain that runs westwards from London Paddington station to the west of England and South Wales. The core Great Western Main Line runs from London Paddington to Temple Meads railway station in Bristol. A major branch of the Great...

 from Paddington, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 and the West across the River Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

. It lies between the stations at Goring & Streatley

Goring & Streatley railway station

Goring & Streatley railway station is a railway station serving the twin villages of Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire and Streatley, Berkshire in England. The station is served by local services operated by First Great Western .-History:...

 and Cholsey

Cholsey railway station

Cholsey railway station, previously known as Cholsey and Moulsford railway station, is a railway station located in the village of Cholsey in Oxfordshire in England...

, and crosses the Thames at an oblique angle on the reach between Cleeve Lock

Cleeve Lock

Cleeve Lock is a lock on the River Thames, in Oxfordshire, England. It is located just upstream of Streatley on the same side of the river. The village of Cleeve is on the opposite bank near Goring ....

 and Benson Lock

Benson Lock

Benson Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England, close to Benson, Oxfordshire but on the opposite bank of the river. The first pound lock here was built by the Thames Navigation Commission in 1788 and it was replaced by the present masonry lock in 1870...

.

The original bridge was designed to carry two broad gauge

Broad gauge

Broad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the standard gauge of .- List :For list see: List of broad gauges, by gauge and country- History :...

 tracks by Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...

 for the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 and was built between 1838 and 1839, at the same time as Maidenhead

Maidenhead Railway Bridge

Maidenhead Railway Bridge is a railway bridge carrying the main line of the Great Western Railway over the River Thames between Maidenhead, Berkshire and Taplow, Buckinghamshire, England...

 and Gatehampton

Gatehampton Railway Bridge

Gatehampton Railway Bridge is a railway bridge carrying the Great Western Main Line over the River Thames in Lower Basildon, Berkshire, England...

 railway bridges. It is constructed from red brick with Bath stone

Bath Stone

Bath Stone is an Oolitic Limestone comprising granular fragments of calcium carbonate. Originally obtained from the Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, Somerset, England, its warm, honey colouring gives the World Heritage City of Bath, England its distinctive appearance...

 quoins as four elliptical skew arch

Skew arch

A skew arch is a method of construction that enables an arch bridge to span an obstacle at some angle other than a right angle. This results in the faces of the arch not being perpendicular to its abutments and its plan view being a parallelogram, rather than the rectangle that is the plan view of...

es of 62 feet (18.9 m) span and a headway height of 21 in 8 in (6.6 m). In 1892 the line was converted to quadruple track and a second bridge was built alongside the upstream side of the original and connected to it by girders and brick bridgelets. The second bridge was built to the same profile and dimensions as the original but it lacks the stone quoins of the original and the plain uncut bricks make a jagged pattern where they meet the faces of the bridge. The second bridge is also narrower, having been built to carry a pair of standard gauge

Standard gauge

The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...

 tracks.

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