The white wall in the photo will be covered by an embankment.
Dramatic view of girders beneath the deck. No rivets here as not normally viewed from this angle. |
I have not yet found an effective way of permanently fixing the bridge deck to the walls as there is little contact between them. In fact, I am in two minds as to keeping it removable or fixed.
In the first posting of this series I pondered about integrating the bridge into my existing layout, or scrap all and create a new layout focused on the bridge, or make a static diorama of it. Somewhat late in the day I sketched plans.
Integration
Integrated Plan |
- The bridge is much longer than I anticipated, being nearly 1 metre long, due to the skew. With 1 in 30 inclines; at least 2m at each end is required to get the track down to ground level. I fear this would encroach too much into the station layout
- The Down Southampton line curve is too tight and the line it is to join would still be on the embankment
The design requires crossover tracks that enables a train on the up Southampton line to cross over the bridge, run around and go under it. The down line stays at ground level. A good point is that in the vicinity of the bridge the trains always travel in the correct direction, as per prototype. Another good point is that the inclines have room to reach ground level before the crossovers.
Points of concern
- Curvature close to the bridge is not representative of the prototype
- Sparse landscaping makes for a boring model to view when trains are not running
- No storage tracks, unless run off tracks take us to an under layout storage yard
- Do I have the heart to rip up my highly detailed Misterton Station.
- Operating potential extremely limited.
- I swore never to build another layout without scrapping one of the six already in the railway room, four of which cannot be operated in the room due to space constraint
- The two Storage tracks available at Hewish Gates are lost. Probably not critical as I also use an off layout storage cassette anyway
- Operating potential of the flyover extremely limited
2 comments:
Hi David,
I have thoroughly enjoyed your adventure with the bridge - I'm sure you'll work it out!
I will be sad if Misterton goes though - it is one of my favourite layouts and was an inspiration for my own N gauge layout.
Crispin
Well Crispin, you made my day with your kind comment. I have decided Misterton stays and the 'semi diorama' layout idea will be adopted.
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