This a typical Scherzer rolling bascule with a single counterweight mounted transversely above the 'roadway'.

At the time of construction it was the longest and heaviest Scherzer bridge in Europe.

James Garon reports that the bridge was fixed closed in 1960 when the roadway was widened.

The bridge replaced an earlier swing bridge built in 1866 by the South Yorkshire Railway.

My thanks to Chris for making the trip across to Althorpe Station to get some great shots of 'Oliver Cromwell' hauling a steam special across the King George V bridge. This is how railways should look!

David Precious has provided the following account of the power source for bridge operation -

The bridge has 3 main spans an 2 approach spans. The bridge is 548ft (17 metres) long in total. The western span is the rolling bascule span. The bridge is of steel girder lattice construction with the centre lattice separating the road and rail decks. The main spans 134 ft and 140 ft long while the lifting span gives a clear waterway clearance of 150 ft. The eastern approach span is 70ft long while the western span - onto which the lift span rolls - is 40 ft long.

The bridge was electric driven running off batteries charge originally by a diesel generator set and later a mercury arc rectifier set. the battery room etc was below the road and railway at the counterbalance end of the bridge. There was also an underwater cable to another battery room behind Althorpe railway station ( long since gone) between the old railway line and bridge crossing and the present day one. Another cable also ran line side down to Keadby Canal Drawbridge across the South Yorkshire Navigation to the battery room there that supplied the power for the motors at the canal drawbridge. If power was flagging after a few openings then by closing switches it was able to draw on the other battery banks elsewhere.

In later years the top ties across the bridge were raised to give higher headroom to meet the demands of larger heavy goods vehicles using the road section. A cantilvered footway was also added outside the north girder.

The rolling bascule was fixed down in 1960 when the bridge was widened.