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Some thoughts on Bridges


The Fatadder

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This post will make a lot more sense to those who have a copy of 'Bridges for Modellers' by L.V. Wood........

 

I've been spending some time today thinking about what to do with the 3 bridges on the layout.

 

For the bridge at the platform end I have decided to go with something very similar to the prototype at Botley, in having an arch bridge of brick construction with no wing walls. As with the prototype the gap between the inside of the arch and the edge of the platform will be quite tight.

 

The footbridge I am still undecided on,

I am favouring the idea of kitbashing either a kit or rtr bridge (mostly because I would prefer to avoid the expense of etching components for the mesh), Of the designs I have looked at it seems to be between the two Ratio products, although both would need fairly hefty modification to get the bridge to carry across to the road. I really like the new covered type discussed in this thread, particularly after looking at Chris Nevard's photo showing a similar bridge on the SE division. The biggest problem is that its not a stright topped bridge, and the lattice would mean buying 2 of them in order to extend to the road. on the plus side the painted finish makes things a lot easier to paint.

The other option is Ratio's concrete footbridge, again this is the high centre type, but this is slightly less of an issue given the concrete design will be very easy to expand with plasticard on one side. Not keen on painting and weathering concrete though.

Not sure which I will go with yet...

 

Finally there is the farm bridge at the other end, this is where the book comes in, figures 93, 118 and 120 show the bridge I am planning on basing it on. This is a brick arch over the mainline and a girder bridge over the branch. will be based off the drawings in the book, adapted to fit the location.

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Any prototype photos for us without the book you could share or have links to Rich? This is the issue I guess with non-prototype modelling :( Mind it does mean you can get away with a little more artistic licence.

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You really don't like stone bridges , do you? I suppose its a case of familiarity breeding contempt - a stone block bridge sounds picturesque and interesting to me.

 

For what its worth , I think I'd go with a longer version of the lattice foorbridge . As you say it looks rather nice (And for the record the ramped footbridge at Barnetby mentioned in that thread looks like a cross between a new multistory carpark for a shopping centre and a children's adventure playground)

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  • RMweb Gold

Cant help with photos of the farm bridge, other than the prototype photo that is inspiring it was taken somewhere near Nuneaton, just had a look on google books and sadly there isnt a copy of it on there, but well recommend looking out for it. It's a very useful resource, I think written by a former civil Engineer, including information on different types of bridges along with drawings and photographs of a number of different prototypes, with cross sections showing the construction. Certainly with the girder span I plan on adding a lot of the detail under the span following what is described.

 

For the bridge at the station end I can be a bit more helpful, having just gone on fotopic and found this. Not the biggest photo but gives the general idea (I have found some better ones when I trawled through all the pages on the Botley search, but cant be bothered to do it again! Its a shame we cant include photos from other sources and reference the original, but rules are rules and all that!

Rather annoyingly while looking for that photo I came across a couple more photos which made me start thinking that maybe I should do Botley properly...........

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