Bridge Numbering

[luckymucklebackit]

Hi - Did a quick search in this and nothing showed up, apologies if I missed a previous thread.  I would like to number the bridges on my layout per BR practise as it would have been in the 1960s (specifically Scottish Region) and don't want to just randomly apply numbers to the bridges and tunnels.  Would every bridge have a number, footbridges included?

 

Any help appreciated.

 

Thanks##Jim

[Trog]

The bridge numbering would usually date from when the line opened so you would want to discover the policy of the company that built the line you are modeling.

 

Not all companies would have done it the same way or had the same policy on how to number later bridges built between the existing ones, for example

 

On the south end of the WCML everything from footbridges to tunnels is numbered in the same series, with newer bridges having the number of the first original bridge south of them with an added letter. However on the GWML bridges are marked not by a number but by their approximate number of miles and chains from Paddington. (Other zero points exist). I did find however that some of the bridges on the DCL line south of Heyford while marked in miles and chains did also have a bridge number but that it was not marked on site.

 

One of the few rules is that there should not be two bridges with the same number on the same ELR, which is why the ELR on the WCML changes four times between Euston and Crewe, as the single mileage run crosses from one bridge number sequence to another. However the railway being the railway no doubt someone will be able to find an exception.

[LMS2968]

Yes, it would, although not necessarily culverts. Station subways would be numbered in the same sequence, at least in LMS practice.