inspirations, for model bridges

[0121modeller]

A long awaited day on the tubes around London has now been accomplished - Railway bridges are always high on my agenda !


The location of these 4 photos is near 4D model shop at the south end of Leman Street , Aldegate east (underground station) is sitated near to top of Leman Street.



There are 2 other bridges behind the one you can see clearly, the end most bridge looks fairly recently laid into place & carrries a tramway for the DLR route east side of London.

The one plate girder bridge has just one central pillar supporting only one main side girder, strange, as the bridge behind it has a more substantial brick built centre support abutment




Some nice close-up detail, I forget where-abouts this bridge is, somewhere south of the Thames is all I know.


No height restriction warning sign on this bridge as its not needed, the bus clears the underside girders with ease.

I'm not sure where this bridge is within london, but I do know its south of the Thames, possibly around Waterloo, London Bridge, or Clapham Jct stations (I should've made notes) , but in any case, this bridge in particular with its deep/high load-bearing side girders, I would say using the Wills SS57 vari-girder but just using the end web-plates which would mean buying a few packs just to make up one bridge & have lots of inbetween web-plates left over for something else, or you could split the inbetween plates (as I did on when building Finsbury Road bridge & so sacrifice some rivet detail). - In any case, place 0.5mm x 4mm pieces of strip in between each squared measurement, (use0.5 x 2.5mm if you decide to split/modify middle plates) so basically the aim being is to have a "deepened web" to every other plate.
If its N gauge you model, then similar applies as to modifying the Knightwing PN13 plate girder bridges, a lot more sawing work invoved & its thicker styrene, at least Wills web plates are individualar already, but you can see my idea on this as to make a plate girder bridge without need of a separate paraphet as SS57 & PN13 are very near to correct scale being over 6ft high. (6ft - 7ft ** height needed for modeling the bridge pictured here - (**= judging by the height of the high top LWB van in photo) )


Notice the corballed** (**I think is the term) brickwork at the base of paraphet, notice also that area of bricks above at top of arch ring-course, so I'd imagine there will be scaffolding errected as to repair/remedy that before too long.



There are some nice little market stalls around & beneath the rail lines/viaduct arches. afaik the area here is Southwark near to London bridge rail station (overground).

[0121modeller]

I think I mentioned in my above posting (or another "London visit" related thread) that I re-traced the rail route that took me from London Bridge to Waterloo east, reason being whilst on the train I noticed a newly laid bridge having construction work to finish it off ready for laying tracks;

Above; is the view of that bridge from the train I was on, I reckon those grey metal items stacked on the bridge deck are to form the paraphet.

I got off at Waterloo east & walked the roads parallel to the rail route I'd just been on back towards London bridge station;





Bracket plates are being bolted on in readiness for fitting the paraphet or gaurd rails above main girders.

Judgeing by the height of that worker in a suspended cage, I reckon the height of those main girders to be approximately 6ft high, the cross girders I would imagine to be at least** 2ft deep using "H" or "I" girder profile. (**judgeing by the position & height of where the rivets/bolts are seen on each spaced division on the main side girder)





Preparing the foundations to install another concrete pillar.

[0121modeller]

Another bridge that took my interest whilst in london was this Warren pattern girder bridge

Spanning a quite a wide roadway & due to the skew angle the girders need to be longer as to bridge the position of abutments.
With this design of bridge being suited for long & wide spans, the bridge gets its load bearing strength from ; 1 - the height of the of the assembled girders & 2 - the "NNNXNNN" design being strong, yet using less area for weight of steel needed. The network & assembly of mostly load bearing cross girders & smaller intermediate girders joining them , a very effective design.








The same bridge showing one of the brick abutments having archway leading to an open road, rarely seen, quite an interesting feature to include this within a model railway project.

[Bufferstop]

Hi Dave - that bridge under construction looks intriguing. It looks as though you were there just a bit too soon to see the first section fastened in place. Looking at the brackets etc on the outside of the bridge and in the lower half of the side wall I'd hazard a guess that it will provide both a cable channel and the now almost obligatory evacuation walkway. If you take the DLR in or out of Bank there's enough light from the train to see that there is a platform level walkway all the way through the tunnel. You could get out of a stalled train anywhere along the tunnel and walk out without getting onto the track. Looks as though you enjoyed yourself.
John W.
aka Bufferstop.

[SouthernBoy]

There were some 'stop-motion' clips of that bridge being slid into place over just a few days posted somewhere on the internet recently. Sorry I don't have links.
I believe it's been a bit controversial because it's over the area of the historic 'Borough Market' (Borough Junction).

I think it's also famous for being one of the most 'intensely worked' junctions on the UK rail system (which is different to the 'busiest station', which is Clapham Junction.

Anyway, at the end of the day it's still all 'Southern Railway' territory

Hi Dave ... there is a platform level walkway all the way through the tunnel. You could get out of a train ... anywhere along the tunnel and walk ... Bufferstop.

Don't tempt him! I've heard he's the sort of person likely to do that!

[0121modeller]

Bufferstop wrote:
Hi Dave ... there is a platform level walkway all the way through the tunnel. You could get out of a train ... anywhere along the tunnel and walk ... Bufferstop.

Thats sounds very interesting, & Bank underground station has one of the most complex of interchaging underground lines, the station covers a huge area of interconnecting walkways as to access one routeline to another, they must've recently modernized it as to include the DLR, as I did not notice this on my previous visit last year.

Don't tempt him! I've heard he's the sort of person likely to do that!

Hey Mark, now then.., I wonder who you heard that from ?? Andy (GROTLAND) springs to mind !!, now he's also a professor of modelling rail bridges too I hasten to add - As you'll see below...

Similarly to my way of thinking, Andy's modified his Peco LK10 bow plate seen here on GROTLAND by cutting the LK10 & adding a couple of Wills SS57 web plates to the centre as to make required length span for main side girders, then adding a paraphet made from Slaters plastikard & styrene strip - as to resemble something similar to the bow plate girder bridge design below , (another location within London - Clapham Jct station, (I think))

Most of the main side girder look to be load bearing here, so the longditudal positioned girders inbetween main side girders would I'd imagine be 2ft deep, add the trough/bridge decking to that, so requires what looks like a high paraphet girder.
The bridge here is one of at least 4 bridges carrying multipul rail tracks over that road, & from what I remember each bridge having different underside girder detail arrangements.


As in relation to the subject of bridges with walkways- back to Wakefield for this oddity of a railbridge - the 7ft high lower section serves as a pedestrian bridge walkway as to cross over the river, trains run above your head, you can just see what looks like 6" "H" profile cross girders that support the decking & rail track, I cannot remember but I would think it carries a single line.

Plenty of these bow shaped Warren pattern/open web truss girder bridges within the wider area of Wakefield & Dewsbury.


Another design oddity from Yorkshire- Maybe they forgot to put the cross girders in between main side girders, so thought it okay to bolt them to the underside !

Above & below : Close up photo's of the underside shoowing additional cross girders & re-enforcing plates bolted to the longditudal main centre girder.




Again, more of my photos during my trip to Wakefield, 2ft deep all longditudally placed load bearing girders & quite a wide (5ft?) overhanging paraphet thats approx 5ft high - love that rust !


& yes mark, I got the impression that great attempts were being made as to keep the architectural design/heritage of the markets area that was beside & partially beneath both older bridges being refurbished & the newly laid bridge, heres another photo I took around the markets area not far from London Bridge.

[Bufferstop]

Thats sounds very interesting, & Bank underground station........... they must've recently modernized it as to include the DLR, as I did not notice this on my previous visit last year.

I last rode that bit over ten years ago. You could miss it! It's either side of the bottom level walkway from Bank to Monument. the line diverges from the approach to the original Tower terminus and dives down. You can't see much from the front facing seats, but further back in the carriages there's enough lightspill to see what's immediately outside.
John W
aka Bufferstop

[iWebrum]

Boat O' Brig near Keith on the River Spey, drove past it a few days ago and my Dad pointed out that it's pretty spectacular! Unfortunately there aren't great images of it (for some reason) - best way is to go on google maps and see the street view (just google boat o' brig). Is a nice sweeping curve just after it and it also runs parrallell to the road bridge which is quite a sight and must be good if you catch a glimpse of a train going over!

[markh]

dont know if this counts as a bridge but it would make a intresting model
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

[0121modeller]

dont know if this counts as a bridge but it would make a intresting model
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

That ^^ link is a google earth image of Europe.

Its a good idea to check what you've posted as to see if a link works or not ,
but thanks for promoting this thread back to the 1st page

& whilst I'm logged in, I'll post a couple more of my photo's on the subject;

Dis-used rail bridge in the Heathtown area of Wolverhampton, note how those cross girders are positioned.


Near to Wolverhamton railway station is this plate girder bridge with its paraphet painted up in pastel colours

[SouthernBoy]

Sorry, I know I posted this question before - but what was the cutter you guys recommended for Plasticard?

I want to put one on my Christmas list. Preferably it would be one from the 4D Model Shop - but not essential

Thanks for any advice:


Ho! Ho! Ho!


Mark

[Zunnan]

Its called 'The Chopper'. Theres a few versions of it, the one I have is made by NorthWest Short Line. I'm sure I read somewhere of ways to make your own 'chopper' as well, it may have been on the other forum.

[SouthernBoy]

Thanks Zunnan - that's jogged my memory sufficiently to recall the 4D Model shop did two versions. I'm thinking of Christmas lists

[chewchoo]

Just North of Liverpool

Liverpool rail bridge

liverpool-rail.jpg (61.89 KiB) Viewed 3766 times

[markh]

dont know this bridge is but i saw it close to seven years ago when i wnet with my dad in truck for a week