OUR recent nostalgia photographs of the old Butts branch railway line in Worcester certainly caused some interest.

So here are four more images of a feature of the city that many people probably didn't even know existed until it appeared in a visionary/waste of money (depending on your opinion) proposal by architects to support a "skywalk" across Worcester from the city centre across the River Severn to St John's.

Chris Wilkinson, who is an absolute mine of information about railways in Worcestershire, sent in two photographs of the Butts branch bridge which were published in Railway magazine in October 1960.

One shows Croft Road, Worcester with the old branch line crossing and by the look of it, just about to be demolished. There can be no other reason for the workman sitting rather precariously on the broken bit. The track had been removed from the line in 1957 and the steel girders carrying the bridge across the road were taken away in June 1960.

In the other image Croft Road has been re-opened and a pannier tank engine crosses the higher level viaduct on its way from Worcester to Bromyard.

The coloured photograph is from our own files and gives a view of the road bridge at Worcester with the archway on the left of the bridge through which the Butts line passed clearly visible. This arch no longer exists, having disappeared many years ago during road improvements.

Also from our files is a wonderful image taken when the present girder rail bridge over the Severn was being built. This opened in 1905 and replaced an original structure erected in 1859.

The assorted group of "workers" is sitting on the tracks of the Butts line as rail cranes carry out the heavy lifting and, as ever, a few suits stare and supervise. Good to see it was always thus.