Sunday, September 25, 2016

BRIDGE WORKS

      The bridge over the Gwydir River at Gravesend .On the now disused Moree to Inverell line.                    This  photo was taken in November 2011.And the river level would be a lot differant at the moment                                                            

With the burden of silo construction removed .I had a bit of track planning to do ,as to the yard layout .I needed the silo finished for this as the distance out from the backboard of the silo rail line would dictate the main line through town and the distance out for the rail bridge.
I always make the rail line at an angle to the front board or with a curve or dogleg in it to add interest to the scene.But being out west I wanted to create the illusion of distance ,so I kept the track parallel with the front for the full distance of the boards .Which is approx 7 mtrs.
With the planning of a yard I usually  make a list of all the things required for a NSW railway yard .Then put all the structures that are made for this on the board ,then shuffle them around until you come up with a track layout that fits in the space available and looks right.


                 A COLLECTION OF TRACK  LAYOUTS ,NON OF WHICH WON 1ST PLACE







When I had come up with a good yard layout I moved to the opposite  end of the MUNGINDI section to work on the bridge section that brings the line into town past the stock sidings and silo.
The silo and bridge have been moved a little further to the south than originally planned,so I had to move the river bed about 1.2 mtrs to the south ,which with foam is relatively easy .Just put an angle cut through the base foam ,then turn over and re glue at 100mm down..
The bridge I am modelling doesn't represent a  bridge in real life but a collection of bits that combined are all NSW practice.I kit bashed a Central Valley  150' steel through truss bridge into a 125' bridge as used on the north coast line.
Also a  through girder kit ,which although not exactly right is that close that I couldn't be bothered to correct it.And timber trestle approach spans.Which all up comes in at 2.3 mtrs in length.
The piers where a bit of a problem,with not much information available on the height of the different sections and dimensions .So from my research it appears that there where 3 different sizes used on my bridge .
So you guessed it i made masters and had the 3 sizes made up so I could adjust the heights and then glue the top cap section on to suit the varying heights in the river crossing.

                                          
                          PIERS FOR THE TRANSITION FROM GIRDER TO TRUSS BRIDGE


                                   
               PIERS FOR THE TRANSITION FROM PLATE GIRDER TO WOODEN TRESTLE


           THE 3 DIFFERANT SIZED PIER CAPS,INCLUDING THE BIGGER 1 FOR THE                                     CENTRE  PIER TO CARRY THE  TRUSS BRIDGES




                                               A PLAN FOR THE MANILLA BRIDGE PIERS


                        THE BRIDGE IN PLACE WITH THE RIVER BED CARVED OUT BEFORE                                                                       THE  SCENERY IS BUILT UP






                                 STARTING TO BUILD THE SCENERY UP AROUND THE PIERS




                                                   FINISHED SCENERY BUILD UP ,
                              WITH A GRAIN TRAIN TO GIVE PERSPECTIVE OF SIZE







1 comment:

  1. Rohan

    Now that is a bridge! Great work as usual and I like the use of the string line, something that I suspect isn't used too often on a model railway. I also love that hotel having seen a photo or two of it in the last few years. Nice to be able to have a station at a prototypical length too.

    Ray P

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