Royal Victoria Dock Bridge
Built by Chris Warrell in September 2010 for the String Secretary’s Challenge
This model is of the Royal Victoria Dock Bridge (1998) in London’s Docklands. It is however proportionally too short and some of the rigging is simplified.
Also I’ve yet to add guard rails and the lift/stair towers to take pedestrians to the deck level.
02/04/11
The model has now been lengthened very slightly, although it is still proportionally too short. The main change is that I’ve added a carriage suspended beneath the main deck. This was the original idea with the prototype, but was never carried out.
It works in the same way as a transporter bridge. In the model a small black Meccano motor is hidden in one of the bases (representing the side of the dock) and this drives a rod and, through an unconventional meshing of a small bevel gear with a large contrate, a long length of sprocket chain to which the carriage is attached.
Limit switches enable the viewer to operate the carriage and allows me not to have to worry about what happens when it reaches the end of travel.
I’ve still to add guard rails and the lift/stair towers to take pedestrians to the deck level.
19/09/11
The model is finished (last photo below).