Work In Progress – Saltash Bridge

Work in progress – Saltash Bridge

One of our good friends of the team here at Scalemodelscenery.co.uk, recently contacted us with some photos of a project he is currently working on. He’s is in the process of recreating a model of the Great Western Mainline set in modern day times, with the layout being in OO scale. One of the features of the layout is Brunel’s famous Royal Albert railway bridge at Saltash. The model of this bridge is a round 26ft long & has been built by a team off site. The bridge has now been installed with more work on it to finish it off. In the  gallery below you’ll see a selection of photos showing current work in progress.

The layout once completed will encompass three levels, with the third level being a the Heritage Line, bringing the total amount of track to around 900 yards (just over ½ mile).  It would take almost 20 minutes for a train to traverse all three levels, and if one walked the convolutes walkways there and back whilst operating just one train 26 times, we have calculated that we will have walked 1 mile! A good part of the loco fleet has been fitted with DCC sound, which is still an ongoing project to add more realism to the layout.

Perhaps the best feature is the concealed overhead lighting being provided by 32 x fluorescent lights at 6,500 Kelvin – which is way up in the daylight range – well behind anything used in a private home or office.  When entering the room for the first time, it is usual to look up to see why it is daylight and whether the roof is missing, and it is first class for photography with perfect and correct colour rendition.  We also have a surround sound system, and so the first person in the door can select what they wish to hear – either CD’s or Radio channels.

There is at least another two & half years work ahead on the layout to bring it to completion. So we’ll report back on the ongoing progress of this superb project. I’d like to thank the layouts owner for allowing to publish the photos here in the Railwaymodellers.com club.