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Viaduct crossing the valley of the River Welland in Rutland, England

The viaduct is long and has 82 arches, each with a 40 feet (12 m) span. It is the longest viaduct across a valley in the United Kingdom. Built by the contractor Lucas and Aird, a total of 30 million bricks were used in the viaduct's construction. The Welland Viaduct is on the Oakham to Kettering Line between Corby and Manton Junction, where it joins the Leicester to Peterborough line. The line is generally used by freight trains and steam specials. In early 2009, a single daily return passenger service was introduced by East Midlands Trains between Melton Mowbray and St Pancras via Corby, the first regular passenger service to operate across the viaduct since the 1960s. There are now two return services between Melton Mowbray and London St Pancras each weekday. The viaduct is on a diversionary route for East Midlands Railway using the Midland Main Line route.

In the late 1870s, the Midland Railway commenced construction of the 17 mile line between Kettering in Northamptonshire and Manton, Rutland. The viaduct, which crosses both the Welland Valley and its flood plain, was designed by William Henry Barlow and members of his company, including his son Crawford, who was the resident engineer, and his former pupil Charles Bernard Baker. Crawford described the Welland Viaduct as being: "one of the grandest and most perfect pieces of workmanship to be seen in the United Kingdom". The viaduct required about 30 million bricks, most of which were fired onsite. At the time of its construction, only the elevated multi track approach to London Bridge railway station exceeded the viaduct's length of 1,280 yards (1,171 metres).

Opened as a through passenger route on 1 March 1880, the Manton to Kettering line provided Nottingham with a more direct link to London with eight trains per day, four in each direction. During the First World War, the viaduct was attacked by a German Zeppelin, possibly because of its strategic importance in transporting troops to the ports on the English Channel. In 1967, as a consequence of the Beeching cuts, scheduled passenger services over the viaduct were discontinued, but the line remained open for freight traffic. The line is also infrequently trafficked by chartered heritage trains. The viaduct's brickwork has suffered from weathering and structural deterioration. Before the privatisation of British Rail, repairs were made by Kettering and Leicester civil engineering staff. Bricklayers reported seeing the imprints of children's hands and feet in the bricks from when they had walked on the clay filled moulds before firing in the kiln. During 2001, restoration efforts commenced on the viaduct. Between 2016 and 2017, works in Network Rail's Infrastructure Projects East Midlands Civils Renewals was undertaken by Amco Rail.