Through the looking glass

There were many nights I felt like Alice falling down a rabbit hole with no way of getting out. But I was committed and bound to see it through. However, instead of chasing a white rabbit, I was chasing a white elephant. Those unfamiliar with the term, a white elephant is something expensive to maintain or upkeep. The kings of Siam used to bestow upon obnoxious courtiers a white elephant with the intent of financially ruining the recipient through the animal's expensive upkeep. However, in my situation, it was self inflicted and the cost was the heavy toll on my health to build this monstrosity. There were many nights of inhaling fumes from solvent or dust from all the sanding. I underestimated the effort to build my bridge which is more or less based on the Hohenzollernbrücke (Hohenzollern Bridge) in Köln (Cologne).

While doing research on the bridge, I discovered that it was the Nazis who blew it up while retreating from the Allied assault on Köln in World War II. Looking at the old archive pictures, I had always assumed it was destroyed by Allied aerial bombs. You can see the destroyed bridge in the background. In fact, most of Köln was destroyed. The photograph posted here was taken from the public domain which originated from the military archives. For more photos, check out this link, at Dierk's page. It is hard to fathom that as a species, we are capable of creating something so beautiful and yet also be so destructive. In retrospect, it was appropriate to name my fictitious layout on the two Norse mythological places known as the Realm of Fire and the Abode of Mists. Muspelheim and Niflheim, respectively.

After the fiasco of my previous attempt at constructing a tubular arched bridge, I had to re-think my plans for the module. Naively I elected to pursue a more complicated bridge design. No wonder it's taking me forever to finish this layout. I started this structure just before Christmas. It took almost two months hunched over the workbench, measuring, cutting, sanding, gluing and lots of squinting to complete this bridge. All in all, I'm very happy with the results of my effort. But if you were to ask me to do it again, my response would be the same as Sigourney Weaver's character in Galaxy Quest when asked to walk through the chompers. Her reply was, "Well screw that!". Although if you look at her lips, that's not what she really said, which I had yelled out many times during this two month ordeal. The bridge was made possible by much cursing and the creation of a jig, which went through several iterations. The previous iterations of the jig were rejected for aesthetic reasons. My first arch design was too high and looked wrong from a scale perspective. I accidentally over-engineered the second iteration with thicker plastic pieces. I finally settled on the third iteration. It's not perfect, but my vision couldn't withstand another iteration. I'm starting to appreciate why modelers in my age category have switched over to HO scale. I'll likely paint the structure, but that will have to wait until spring when I can do that outside. I plan to match the green oxidized copper patina that I currently have on the roof of my station and cathedral. This will give the modules cohesion and a consistent look. Now I just need to correct my hunched-over posture and cross eyed vision before my friends start calling me Igor.

Here are some pictures taken during the construction.

The above picture is a shot of the jig i had constructed. If you look very closely you can see another set of holes I had drilled previously. That was the first iteration where I later discovered that the arches were set to high.

I managed to pick up some spring clamps at the dollar store. They certainly came in very handy in constructing the arches. From this photograph, I laminated multiple strips together to hold its curved form. This lamination is a great technique for maintaining curvilinear shapes. I plan to use this technique in other future structures. You can see thin separators underneath the second strip. I needed to create a lip on the arch for the X shaped cross beams to rest on. You'll see this in a later picture.

A completed arch. The diagonal pieces at the top are very thin because the forces applied on them are pulling rather pushing. I originally had much thicker pieces on the previous incarnations, but I didn't like how they looked. A suitable analogy would be Romanesque versus Gothic architecture where Gothic architecture is very light and airy. Don't get me wrong, I like Romaneque architecture as much as Gothic, but for this bridge, I preferred something not as heavy looking.

With all three arches built, it was time to attach the cross beams. I created helper pieces to maintain consistent separation between the arches. You can see these spanning the top and the bottom of the arches. 90 degree angle brackets (not shown here) come in very handy for holding the arches upright.

The most difficult task was constructing the X shaped cross beams that secures the arches together to form a tight rigid structure. I had to make each X shaped cross beam. There are 32 on the lower tier and 48 on the upper tier. In the above picture, I was securing the lower tier.

A close up of the lower tier of X shaped cross beams. You can see that the cross beams rest on the lip of the arch. This made it easier to set and glue each of the individual pieces.

To secure and glue the top tier of cross beams, I had to flip the bridge upside down. It was a tight squeeze and in hindsight, I should have elevated the structure a little higher.

All told there are 749 separate pieces that make up this bridge.