Peace River Rail Bridge

The Peace River Rail bridge, along with the iconic auto bridge, will be the centre piece of the whole layout. A faithful reproduction of the two unique bridges will enable the viewer of the layout to immediately recognise that this is Peace River, Alberta.

 

 

View from the air, looking north

Construction of the prototype railway bridge was started in January of 1917 and completed on November 8th, 1918 at the, then, scandalous price of just under $1 million plus a further grant of $175 thousand from the Alberta government to plank the bridge and install railings so that it could be shared with road vehicle traffic. This arrangement lasted until 1968 when the auto bridge was opened.

Post Card from the 1920's, looking east.

The bridge consists of 11 spans: The centre "Through Truss", 3 Deck Truss spans on either side of that and 2 girder bridge approach spans on either bank for a total length of 1736 feet.

Modelling this landmark will present a challenge. I began with Central Valley Pratt Truss Bridge kits. Heavily modified, I can use these to model the main superstructures' 7 spans.

Central Valley Pratt Truss Bridge (Great detail!)

Although the Deck Truss spans of the real bridge consist of 7 "panels" each, the dimensions of the Central Valley kit dictated that I construct the spans with only 6 panels. A compromise that I believe will only be noticeable to the most knowledgeable of viewers.

Other deviations from the prototype are the absence of much of the cross bracing. I decided to leave this out for fear that the model would become too cluttered looking and lose the "airiness" of the prototype. Once the bridge is complete I may decide to add this detail.

So far I have only built 2 of the deck truss spans and these still need to have their walkways added but keep looking back at this post because I will be adding to it as the bridge progresses. Once completed the model will be 103" long and span a complete module and parts of the two adjoining modules, a scale 1373', or 80% of the actual length.

The challenges ahead are how to model the 2 types of unique concrete piers (seen below) that support the bridge and the building of the approach spans on either side of the main structure.

Stay tuned!!!