A Bridge Too Far ​

A Bridge too Far was part of the “Tribute to Brunel” layout built by the Basingstoke Bodgers in the final of the inaugural Great Model Railway Challenge as featured on Channel 5, and was designed to feature the representation of the Royal Albert Bridge which spans the River Tamar between Devon and Cornwall. The name of the layout comes from the fact that of the three bridges on the Brunel layout, this was the one that we were unable to finish in the time allowed.
Except for the plate girder bridge sides, the bridge is totally scratch built from plasticard, plastruct, microstrip, water pipe, card, paper and a Pringles tube. The higher level main running line over the bridge is N-gauge and the lower lines to Okehampton and in the dockside area are to 2mm Finescale standards.

The layout is not intended to be an exact replica, just a representation of the area due to the constraints of the baseboard size supplied to us for the Challenge. The buildings are a mix of those from previous club layouts, some scratch built, some card kits and some bought at various model railway shows .

The points and signals are operated using servo motors controlled using MERG CBUS electronic components.

The layout is operated over two periods, from 1956-1960 with predominately Southern and BR Standard steam locomotives hauling diversionary trains, and from 1968-1972 featuring diesels in early BR liveries.

An article on the construction of the bridge was featured in the March 2019 issue of Railway Modeller magazine.