A New Bridge for the SCGR

It's been a considerable while, it seems, since I have been able to do anything of any substance on my line, due to having to renovate a house suitable for my daughter and her fiance to inhabit. Well that is done and finished now, they have been in there for a little over 2 weeks. Amazingly it is still standing.

Anyway, this weekend I have been able at last to turn my attention to a very urgent matter - no trains have run this year, owing to some wind-damage sustained to the bridge that spans the pond.

It is the original bridge, first built (from trellis-work) and installed in 2001 - before any track was even purchased! However, being of wood construction, with little or no preservative applied, it was only a matter of time before the ravages of the British weather would end its life - and so it finally proved, in April this year, a particularly strong wind was enough to cause a partial collapse.

A sad sight indeed:





By a happy coincidence, last weekend I was dismantling my daughter's old bed frame - comprising some sturdy wooden sides and some slats on which the mattress lay. It occurred to me as I took it apart, that these wooden sides would be potentially useful as the basis for a new bridge. Well this weekend, I was finally able to make use of it. Firstly, though, I needed to remove the last remnants of the old structure:



Fortunately, the wooden framework was long enough to span the pond completely!



Most of the slats were in good shape too:



This time I wanted to preserve the wood as best I could before putting it to use, so I dug out my old 'creosote substitute' recipe and gave everything a liberal coating - including myself it seems



The 'track beds' were made the long wooden pieces salvaged from the old bridge - although green and dirty, they seemed fairly sound so I gave them a new lease of life as the platform on which the sleepers would rest:



Once assembled, and with a final coat of creosote substitute for good measure, I placed the resulting structure back over the pond:



Finally (for now) I was able to reconnect the trackwork:



Obviously this is just the basic sub-structure - I am still mulling over the possibilities as to how to make it look - indeed, the recently resurrected thread on railway suspension bridges has had me thinking. But as the last photo shows all too clearly, there is much work to be done before a train will be run this year - the lineside vegetation has had a 9-month head start on me so it could be a while.

I see you have been taking a leaf out of Mikey’s book and re-cycling construction materials. A suspension bridge could be a nice feature as a fair bit of it will show above the track level, ideal for your position.

Nice work Clive! Does the track then pass over the new bit you improved last year (the new rockface)?

mikey

The track work passes adjacent to the new rockface. The last-but-one picture sort of shows that - the rock face is in the foreground, left side of the picture. I am thinking of brushing on some liquid compost or similar to remove the obvious cement look, and to further drop some heavy hints to Mother Nature as to how I think it should look!

"No trains run this year".....I thought it had been a bit quiet on the S&CGR.

The time really has passed quickly and only a scary 6 months now until Christmas.

Great construction work Clive and a sensible way to do things, building a new substructure so that trains can potentially run whilst you decide and get inspiration for the next stage.

Nicely salvaged.

Just douse them in wood preservative - creosote or whatever the bluddy health-an-safety man allows us to use these days. Should last another 10 years.

clive_t wrote:

The track work passes adjacent to the new rockface. The last-but-one picture sort of shows that - the rock face is in the foreground, left side of the picture. I am thinking of brushing on some liquid compost or similar to remove the obvious cement look, and to further drop some heavy hints to Mother Nature as to how I think it should look!

Bricks and any other non-living surface will always look better if you coat them in a cement-peat-water mix. Failing that, just daub lots of fresh yoghurt on them, being alive it encourages bacteria, moss and other stuff so it wethers in well.

For information, I would share with you my secret recipe for 'creosote substitute' - It's actually a 60:40 mix of bitumen paint (for waterproofing walls, flat roofs etc) and white spirit. The white spirit thins the bitumen and allows better absorption into the wood.

Great recycling project. Sorta gives the term "roadbed" a whole new meaning, doesn't it? It also ensures your daughter won't be moving back in with you.

KleineDicke wrote:

It also ensures your daughter won't be moving back in with you.

We're taking no chances, we've changed all the locks too.

clive_t wrote:

KleineDicke wrote:

It also ensures your daughter won't be moving back in with you.

We're taking no chances, we've changed all the locks too.

It couldn't hurt. :-)