I recently discovered some bridges from the club's old layout when they were located in the old parcels office in the railway station. The bridges were made entirely from wood and had been made by Grandad for that layout. The club moved from the parcels office to the Men in Sheds building near Tesco's (can't remember the year) and the old layout was dismantled and a new one was built.

 

One of the bridge girders:

 

 

Grandad then suggested having a higher running line to add operational interest and using the bridges on it. The line would stretch from one end of the layout to the other and have a bridge with the main running line passing underneath. The bridge over the main track would be at an angle, so we had to cut a length of wood to suit it. We decided to start on the bridge section first. We used pink ivory wood and other lengths of wood to make the piers on which the line would sit. We test fitted the piers in various places to see what would work. Once I was happy with the result, I glued them in place. 

 

I had also found several lengths of wood which were perfect for putting on top of the piers and putting the track on top. We decided to use these. Grandad cut one at a 45 degree angle for the curve from the bridge to the straight section of the running line. Once we had set up the bridge section, we got to work in the rest of the line. We positioned the piers in different positions down the line and once we were happy, glued them into position. We decided to leave it overnight and let the glue set so we headed upstairs to work on Draxbridge. 

 

 

The piers and the running line surface gluing:

 

 

 

The next time I went round, we made a start on the track laying. For the curve, I knew that there wasn't a radius small enough to negotiate it the way we wanted it to, so we used PECO flexi-track. We cut it to size and nailed it in position. 

 

 

The curve:

 

I had just got to the point where the curve finished when I had an idea: why don't we have a point going off the running line and into the fiddleyard?

 

It would be ideal because we could send the loco in and take off/put on a wagon in the fiddle yard, send it back and shunt it into the siding and get another one. Plus, we would have more operational potential with it and would be interesting to see being used at shows. With this in mind, we decided to do it.

 

 

 

We cut some more pink ivory wood for the supports and glued them in place. After that, we got another piece of the wood we used for the running line surface and sawed one of the ends at an angle. This was so it would match up the side of the length of wood on which the point was on top of. We test fitted it first before gluing it on top of the piers. I continued track after beyond the point but left the new siding alone. The track was laid and glued down in place on the fiddle yard siding the next day. 

 

The newly laid track on the higher running line:

 

I started to put card on the piers supporting the running line last week. So far, I've only done the rail bridge and part of the wall. Once the whole thing had been covered by the card, it'll have brick paper glued over it. I'll have to see if I can find any in either Croppers or Mighty Lancer. 

 

 

 

Whilst browsing online on the Hattons website for brick paper last week, I came across this:

 

 

The good thing about this is it's self adhesive, so you only have to peel off the clear plastic on the back and stick in in place and you don't need to use glue. It comes with 10 sheets of it and I thought that this would be more than enough for the job so I immediately ordered a pack on the Friday (11/11/22) and it arrived on Tuesday this week.

 

 

 

Then yesterday (19/11/22), I went round and decided to focus on the higher line. I took the self adhesive brick paper with me so I could start work on it. I started work on the first bridge which the road was going under. I had to measure out the height of the wall from the baseboard to the top of the piers so I could know what the measurements were was so I could cut the brick sheet to size. Then after a lot of cutting, checking the measurements and trimming, the first length of brick paper was on!

 

 

I was supposed to complete it but I got distracted by renovating a signal box. I decided to finish the brick paper off the next day, which has now been done. 

 

 

Two weeks after that, I started on the other side of the same bridge. It'll have brick paper on it by Friday.

 

 

 

 

I found a piece of thick board that was the right size for the wall that will be glued to the side of the wooden surface on which the track sits. I cut some brick paper to size and stuck it on the piece. Unfortunately, there isn't any more of this stuff so I found by chance. I'll have to do some searching. It feels like MDF but I'm not sure.