Introduction

Another acquisition from my visit to Duxford was the Great North Roads Single Arch Bridge, kit no MW3506

Great North Roads have an extensive range of diorama bases, buildings and ruins, roads and bridges, scenics and accessories for the modeller. They provide bases in 1/76 scale and 1/35 scale. The kits are made from a tough, dense dental plaster and cover a wide range of choices.
So let have a look at the kit.

The Kit

The kit comes packed in a sturdy box, the item being wrapped in bubble wrap and the box filled with polystyrene pellets for further protection. The box displays a colour picture of the base for reference and contact details for the company.

The kit contains 14 separate pieces to build the bridge. The pictures show a dry fit of the main pieces and as far as I can tell only a little sanding may be necessary to get a good fit. Contained along with the parts is single A5 sheet showing the placement of the various structures. In the dry fit, logic dictates where things should go so building shouldn’t pose any major problems.

Also in the box is a small sheet giving some general information on working with plaster, stating that the parts should be removed from the packaging and allow to ‘breath’ for a few hours on a flat surface.

The detailing on the structure looks good, my only observation is that the inside parapet , that part facing in above the road, has no detail so you will have to transcribe the stone into the reverse of these parts unless you want a plastered effect which would be most unlikely.

You get 4 small extensions of parapet to build into any groundwork you adding at the ends and these too will need scribing on the inside surface.

The bridge arch has stone detail on the underside The 4 support pillars look nicely detailed and the arch detail is well executed. The base plinths are also nicely detailed.

You get one and a half lengths of cobbled road and it might have been better to get two full lengths. The half-length will need cut to provide the small section of additional road way needed at either end of the bridge. The cobbles are well depicted.


The instructions note that "Stanchions are not supplied in the kit and need to be spaced equally along each side; therefore it will be necessary to drill suitable holes to fit." Not being remotely engineering orientated and looking at the structure I can only surmise that these supports would be required under both ends of the roadway, but further investigation will be needed to clarify this.

Conclusion

There is a fun project in the making here and the structure, with a little work should give you a very good representation of a Single Arch Bridge, the design of which can be found through Europe and a few other places I dare say.

The lack of reverse detail on the inside parapet walls will need a little attention, but isn’t that part of the fun? Overall a very good representation of a Single Arch Bridge the linage of which goes back to medieval times and before.

Given the generic nature of the structure this subject covers a wide time span so lots of possibilities for what might travel over the bridge.