Now for something different... or is it.

This is an idea that has been hanging around for a long time now and after some research I've decided to go for the plunge and give myself a real beefy project which could form centre point to a new layout display project. Originally I'd thought about something that you could look up to maybe a line on an embankment but after thinking awhile it just seemed too mundane and thus my original Leek Arm was shelved, I've also decided to limit myself in length because from experience these grandiose ideas always fall flat at the first hurdle due to costs, space and time. However I do like bridges, I like rivers and I like rural tree scenes so this plan has all these elements including a fish ladder and an embankment with signals .

So here is my idea and after some research I shall have to do a scale drawing and see how this can be condensed, this is Norbury Bridge on the old NSR Ashbourne line, the bridge crossed over the River Dove on two caissons at a skew with a beam length of 187 feet, the two leading transom beams were 81' and 124' in length each. I'd like to do this bridge in brass if possible.

Original copywrite now expired under the 70 year rule but a copy of this picture belongs in the Collection of Allan C Baker.

 

Weigh a damn ton it will I bet... can't imagine SWMBO will carry this around on her back to shows... now who else could be up to the task

 

Apparently the original one designed by the NSR Chief Engineer George Crosbie-Dawson had 53,000 rivets and weighed 670 tons, the contractor was Eastwood Swingler & Co of Victoria and Railway Ironworks of Derby. There was also a second smaller bow string bridge a couple of miles or so up the line at Knavesholme which brought the line back into Derbyshire, both of which are now gone, all that remains are the caissons and stone abutments which I photographed some twenty odd years ago. However I do believe but have never tried to explore it; a third NSR bow string bridge (apart from the one in Longton) survives on the Churnet Valley section to cross the River Dove again just below Crakemarsh near Uttoxeter but from what I am told it is near impossible to access the site. Asbourne - Uttoxeter trains would have traversed this bridge having passed through Rocester Junction.

I'd like to have a go at building the Norbury Bridge even if that is all I do, the area is very scenic but I won't be doing 53,000 rivets.

 

I have seen Atlantic salmon trout in flight jumping the fish ladder on the weir just off the River Dove by the site of this old bridge, an amazing sight Gary. Sadly Staffordshire County Council took the old bridge away for scrap back in 1971, so I guess the only way to see this stuff nowadays is to build a model.

 

That's a lovely bridge at Greta and the other one lower down the valley was washed off its abutments by Storm Desmond in the floods a couple years ago, the Cockermouth & Keswick Railway design was slightly different to the Knotty ones but to me the overall scene of a wooded valley and river is iconic. Thanks for sharing the video Gary... its much appreciated.

 

Right now Timber I'm not sure which way this project will go so at this time I wouldn't want to commit to anything, but thank you for your consideration anyway. I think the first stage for me is to locate original drawings and records and then sit down and see what is realistic and possible... a total bridge length which is somewhere in the region of 2 metres in length isn't really practical so a considerable amount of compression will be required.

 

Nah Bittern, it would take too much paint