GWR Footbridge

[Hound Dog]

Hi,

It has been probably about four months or so since I posted about "Engineering Works" on my Montgreenan layout and like most things with this hobby, that job kept growing arms and legs, and the more I dug into it the less enthusiastic I became and the more I wished I hadn't started. It probably didn't help that I lost my job of 25years in the midst of this, but thru my many industry contacts I was fortunate to be able to secure a new position almost straight away, but that process is always a stressful time and the mess in the garage didn't really seem like a priority or a fun place to be.

However since the new year I have slowly been trying to plot a way thru the work on the layout and I am almost back to where I was, but with much better track alignment at the western end of the station, and a new double crossing that offers much greater operational possibilities.

I mentioned quite sometime ago that I decided I was going to follow Glencairn's lead and have a dual era layout with "Montgreenan" being BR Blue in the early 80's, and "Portencross" providing the basis for Hydraulic Diesels in the West Country during 1960's. With everything packed away during the Engineering works, it seems logical to re-launch my layout in the Western region era and this has given me an renewed appetite and interest to make it happen............still a few weeks before I will be happy to run trains, but I have a firm plan in my mind on what items to swap out that are 80's and non-Western Region, and have identified suitable alternatives to replace them with (but still with the option to be able to be switched back to the later era), eg Loco shed, Signal box and a new Milk depot to name a few.

First on the list was my station footbridge, which as a lattice LMS affair was never going to work and I was therefore searching for a few weeks for a GWR replacement, but most were only suitable for spanning two tracks (whereas I have three thru the station).........then I stumbled across a web post from some guy in Australia who had an old and basic Hornby kit ( R481) and painted it in GWR Cream and Brown. This got me thinking that I if I could cheaply source two of these, then I could probably make an extended length version out of two kits.

....and so I give you the new Portencross station footbridge .............it is a little taller than I would like ( it has already been cut down for platform mounting), but I think further alterations will perhaps weaken the structure and make it disproportional........may be a little weathering still required, but I quite enjoyed the modelling challenges of adapting the kits to make a custom structure and this has certainly got me moving forward again.

Will post more bits and pieces as I go along, and have a couple of items currently in hand or on order that should keep things progressing - cheers Richard

PS - D1015 Western Champion in Golden Ochre and Green Warship D825 "Pegasus" were two fairly recent treats, but there have been several others which I will share in time as the Hydraulic era comes to the rails at Portencross.

[Steve M]

You’ve made a really good job of that Richard. Pleased to hear the good news on the job front as well.

[PBoland]

Nice job, love the Hydraulic Diesels myself.

[teedoubleudee]

Footbridge looks great Richard

[cheshire lines]

The footbridge certainly looks the part.

[Bandit Mick]

Superb job - well done!

[footplate]

Fantastic job on the footbridge Richard.

[GaryH]

Footbridge look great fits in with the station perfectly
Gary