4. Bridge 25 - Across the Railway.

Crossing the railway from the village to Blakesley Hall was an unclassified road.  It crossed the SMJ Line on a hump-backed bridge.  This was Bridge 25 on the SMJ.  It was originally Ironstone and red-brick but there was an upgrading of the line by the LMS Railway in the 1930s.  During this time, the Bridge was strengthened and the parapet walls were re-built with blue engineering brick.

An Ex LNWR Super D 0-8-0 passes under the Blakesley Station Bridge.

This weekend, I spent an hour drawing up sketches of the bridge with a view to making a model.  I mocked up the bridge in foam-core board.  It was successful and so I used the mock-up as a skeleton for the model.  The foamcore-board is covered in Slaters English Bond Brick and Dressed Stone embossed plasticard.  Painting was with water based emulsions.  Making a decent ironstone effect that actually looks like the oolitic limestone of the region was not easy.

The foamcore basis of the model can be clearly seen here, withe the original ironstone and blue engineering bricks replicated.

Here is bridge 25 mocked up in place on the baseboard.  It will form the scenic break at thr right hand end of the layout.  You can see the standard gauge and the Blakesley Hall Miniature Railway line side by side as per the prototype.

The Bridge is looking well bedded in now.  The construction of this end of the layout is nearing completion.  The 15 inch gauge line is now complete.