Walthamstow Marshes/ Copper Mill Bridge

[NSE 108]

As I am between the End of Sixth form and the start of University I have decided to take part in this years Challenge to give me something manageable to build. I have decided that I shall depart from my Normal OO gauge and build this diorama in N gauge as I expect that the next layout I build will be N and I want some practice.

 

The Board being used is built from Foam Board and held together using Glue from A glue gun. It was originally build to be 30 inches long but has been cut back to fit into the 20 inch length restriction. All other measurements were within the limits of the Challenge. Including the time it took to cut the board down to the reduced size it took just over a hour to assemble.

 

Running surface of the Board. The markings viable on the surface were part of the original diorama plan that was going to be on the larger Board.

Underneath support

Having built the board I started to try and work out what to model. A number of Ideas were tossed around including OO city scenes as well as N gauge country lines. However I settled upon my final idea when I was looking through my photos on my laptop and came across this photo that I took near to where I live.

 

The photo is of the Bridge where the Lea Valley Line from Liverpool Street To Cambridge Crosses the entrance Road to Walthamstow Marshes and a small stream that runs alongside, the red square on the following areal photo shows roughly where it was taken.

I have often thought that a good model could be made of the railways in this area is it is the site of the junction where the Lines from Liverpool street to Cambridge/Walthamstow split and the Line from Stratford Joins the Cambridge Line. As such there are two main levels of Railway with one flying over the other and a curve linking the lower one to the higher one.

 

However as can be seen from the Areal Photo the marshes are quite big and in any scale wouldn't fit into the required size of area, so I decided to focus on the location the bridge over Copper Mill Lane in the 3rd Photo and the following plan for the diorama emerged. The Area shown in this Image is roughly equivalent to the area in the white Rectangle on the above Picture.

So having decided what to model I now just need to get on and build it.

[SXHALL]

Chance for some good atmosphere on this. Love your photo of the bridge, at 5' even my wife would bang her head on it!

 

Steven

[NSE 108]

So having done some more research for photo's to work from I've turned this up out of my own records which shows a more general view of the approach to the Bridge and also the gate that provides access to the service road and the level crossing for vehicles over 5ft but shorter than the electric cables for the trains.

 

 

 

I've also found this photo on google which shows the other side of the pair of Bridges.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/93409

 

while this picture from just up the line where the Cambridge and Walthamstow Lines meet has made me wonder about which season the Model should be set in.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewblack/5274925477/in/photostream/