I've been aware for some time that AHM issued a kit for a so-called "rolling bridge" in both HO and N, and since I've always liked drawbridges, I've always had it at the back of my mind to find one. However, I never ran into any at a swap meet, and partly because I wasn't aware of the exact name of the product, I could never locate one on eBay. It was only very recently that I discovered it was issued under the name "rolling bridge", and voila, I saw two on eBay at a moderate price.
I got the N version, because I figured I could adapt it to a T-TRAK style micro layout or diorama, whereas I don't have a good place to put the HO version on my main layout. Here's a copy of the art on the box:
The model version as produced by Pola, AHM, and Tyco has a brick machinery house and an additional short span that aren't on the prototype, which is located at Wingo, CA on the Northwestern Pacific. This is a line that I occasionally railfan, and I've always wanted to get photos of the prototype, but the area is hard to get to, and even harder in recent years, since the land now seems to be fenced off. However, this is on the NWP's connection to the California Northern and UP, and the bridge is still in use, although it's currently opened very seldom if at all.
Here's a photo of the prototype:
Here's the kit as I assembled it. Especially painted silver like the prototype, the detail really comes out nicely.
The length of the track on the bridge as I assembed it without the third span at the other side of the draw is 7-1/4 inches, which makes it a good candidate to install in a single-wide 12.20 inch T-TRAK module. However, with only one track, it won't meet T-TRAK standards, but I'll use it as a mocro layout component with the 3-2-2 Inglenook I discussed in my last post.
I decided not to make the model operate, as this is more complication than I want to deal with, and the prototype only opens on request with a lot of advance notice anyhow. As far as I can tell, the prototype only has manual operation.
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