by Pittsburgh » Wed Nov 16, 2005 11:23 am
I was wondering if anyone ever got any picture of the old Larkhall Viaduct. Reading about it brought back old memories. We used to spend our lunchtimes from school down there, playing on what we called the "catwalk" It was a gantry type walkway that took you from one side to another running undernear the viaduct. You could walk on the top of each support and climb the ladders, where they still exsisted, up to the top level when the tracks once were. At the centre of the viaduct it was real nose bleed territory.
We had to "leg it" on more than one occasion from the "polis". Anyone who has visited the Viaduct will know that it is not in the best of repair, which led to a few hairy situations with people having to make mad grabs to stay on the catwalk. I read that someone had fallen recently, it really made me realise how lucky, or is that stupid?, that we were!
Is it was still possible to get on the catwalk, or have the neds made it a no go area. I remember a great rope swing that was near the start of it.
We used to get our lunch from Greggs and jump the wall to get down to the old railways station, soon to be the new railway station, and walk all the way along past the "coal yard", behind the leisure centre and then try not be seen by any teacher at the school going down to the Viaduct. We figured it was them that called to police, seeing that I never saw a police car on patrol in 18 years of living there!!