The White River and Northern Model Railroad: Detail

	The N Scale

	Model Railroad

Disused Signal Bridge on the WR&N IV

This old, rusty signal bridge got a lot of attention on the layout principally because of its superdetailing. It began as an NJ International standard signal bridge kit (#4210), which I modified based on details found on two real signal bridges I studied, one in Hopewell and the other in West Trenton, New Jersey. The modifications include:

wooden walkway on top with supports and railings
ladders at each end
signal stanchions on both sides
signal access ladders, platforms and cages

The wooden walkway was assembled from basswood strip stock; cross pieces mounted to the steel frame support the distressed boards, some of which are broken or missing. The ladders and railings are etched brass parts swiped from a Ratio Plastic Models kit; they are the very finest ladders and railings I have ever seen.

The bare signal stanchions are simply lengths of brass rod attached to the bridge with small bits of drilled-out strip styrene. The access platforms are square sections of Plano Model Products freight car roofwalk bonded to strip styrene brackets mounted on the underside of the bridge. The short access ladders are more of the same ladder stock used on the ends of the bridge, but the cages are from an etched brass safety cage ladder detail from Ratio Plastic Models (of this I am certain as their name is on the fret).

Finishing began with an overall coat of flat black, followed by a deliberately sloppy splattering of ruddy primer. Rustall provided additional weathering. The rotting wooden walkway, which was applied after painting the bridge, was weathered with India ink washes and some light touches of Rustall.

To prevent accidental damage, particularly during track cleaning and maintenance, the bridge was never mounted permanently to the layout. Instead, brass brads were bonded to the undersides of two of the four footings, which dropped into matching holes in the layout.

The finished bridge was certainly impressive enough to place in the foreground where it could be studied closely. It has survived the demise of the layout and will likely be featured in the next incarnation of the White River and Northern.

Image specs: The large image at the top is a cropped-down version of a 35mm Ektachrome 200 slide taken sometime in 2000. All of the detail images were taken with a Canon PowerShot SD400 under a 250-watt quartz-halogen lamp on 21 June 2007.

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