Bridging the Gap

Now I have taken on a new deadline for Freshwater, the 2mm Expo at Keighley, I am now motivated to get on with the scenics. First off, a bit of terra-forming. As I had some sheets of foam-board available, I thought I would use some to build up the contours. Most of the station area is flat, so it is only the river banks and the start of a small hillock behind the station that needed building up. When I have smoothed out the slopes, I intend to cover it with PVA soaked kitchen towel. I hope to avoid having to use much filler, as the board does twist and move a bit, and filler will probably crack and break up.

Only a small number of buildings are needed for the layout, so I want to avoid using kits (except for the ratio concrete platelayer's hut probably), and scratch build as much as I can. Starting with the basic civil engineering, I need a bridge over the tidal River Yar. I have not found any photos of the real bridge, so I need to freelance it. I would have liked to build a dainty little bridge with hand rails, but rail cleaning at exhibitions would probably destroy them. Therefore, I decided on a large girder type bridge, giving plenty of clearance for the tide to come in.

The main girder and end pillars were cut from a single piece of plasticard, then further layers of plasticard were added to build up the pier thickness. By using a single piece, the piers and girder will always be at right-angles to each other, and will not move when the bridge is fitted in place. Strips of thin plasticard have been added to complete the girder. In the photo, only the nearest girder is complete.



When the girders are complete and painted, they will be glued in place, and the abutments below the bridge will be completed in place. Brick paper will then be applied to finish off the abutments and piers. Hopefully, all will be complete next week. Then I can start on the platform. The original platform was brick edged, then it was extended using concrete panels, and then another extension was added with concrete pillars. Should be fun.