Simon Glidewell
Western Thunderer
Some recent developments on Ballast Quay; the connecting bridge between the goods yard and the rest of the layout. The model is copied from the bridge outside the former Witney goods yard in Oxfordshire. I took the prototype photo in 1979, nine years after closure and as far as I know it's still there, well hidden in dense undergrowth and trees. An interesting bridge as apart from the standard girder arrangement it had an additional parapet for shunting horses. The white wooden railings were a safety feature to stop the shunters and their horses falling into the River Windrush! My model is only partially complete and needs lots of fine tuning, especially with the long grass and vegetation. The brown bushes on the river bank nearest the bridge are slowly being made to represent typical river plants with fluffy seeds (not sure what they're called) as seen in the prototype photo. Obviously they will be modified and refined and not look the way they do now; it's just a start.
