Bont Charlie (Charlies Bridge)

With exams now finally over it's back to strolling around N. Wales (weather permitting) with my camera & trusty tape measure.

This bridge, known locally as "Bont Charlie" is located south of the small village of Bethel roughly halfway between Bangor & Caernarfon. It was built (date unknown) to carry a chartered public footpath over the 4ft gauge Padarn Railway which transported finished slates from the Dinorwic Slate Quarry to an incline at Pen-Scoins, here the slates were lowered from a drum house to the port exchange sidings at Y Felinheli from where they would be loaded onto all manor of vessels & shipped all over the world.

The line under the bridge was single & there would be, at most, 5 trains per day each way, with good crossing visibility afforded from both directions. However the power of Dinorwic Quarry owner, Padarn Railway owner & local land-owner  Sir Charles Assheton-Smith of the Vaynol Estate, could not sway parliamentary regulation which required the Padarn Railway to provide a safe means for traversing the line by foot at the intersection of the railway with the chartered public footpath, hence the bridge was constructed over the line at this point.

Aerial Image 1. Satellite imagery courtesy of Google Earth showing the location of the bridge south of Bethel, (outlined by the red cricle). The now disused & overgrown track bed of the 4ft gauge Padarn Railway can be seen running north to south with the footpath crossing from east to west.

Photograph 1. Ground level photograph of the bridge in a very overgrown & somewhat sorry looking state, this view is looking south-west. (05/05/2013)

The model was created accurately to scale in Autodesk 3DS Max taking around 1 afternoon to complete & stands at 1,394 polys or 868 verts. Here are a couple of HD (1920 x 1080) clay renders of the basic finished shape.

Render 1. Ground level view looking north to south under the bridge, as seen by any approaching trains.

Render 2. Birds eye view.

Render 3. Birds eye view looking east to west showing the detail of the footpath steps. 

A Bridge Too Far?

Recently the modelling flare has re-ignited within me & with a bit of spare time on my hands between finishing my University dissertation & the start of the May exams combined with improvements to the weather I've got out & about with the camera & tape measure again.

I could & definitely should have started with a simpler object to model with a bit less procedural flora coverage, however being young & fancying the challenge I chose this magnificent bridge local to myself joining the Treborth Botanic Gardens with Ysgol Coed Menai (closed & derelict at the point of writing).

Photograph 1. The sloped gradient of the road deck looking north towards the Treborth Botanic Gardens.

Photograph 2. The span covering the up & down lines to Caernarfon on the Afon Wen line, this view is looking west & follows the line up the 1 in 79 gradient towards Treborth Station.

Photograph 3. Looking west under the main span are the up & down lines to Holyhead of the old Chester to Holyhead Railway. Shortly after the bridge the left line converges with the right to form a single line before crossing R. Stephensons' Britannia Bridge over to Anglesey. To the left of the photograph can be seen a retaining wall - holding back the earthworks of the Afon Wen lines (far left out of shot), between this retaining wall & the left bridge pillar at ground level ran the western head-shunt for the Menai Bridge goods sidings, by the looks of it the clearance was very tight indeed!

Photograph 4. Looking the other way (east) under the main span towards the site of Menai Bridge Station (now long gone) & on to Bangor Station, the head-shunt of the goods sidings would have run between the right pillar & the retaining wall which is barely visible due to the wild flora in this shot.

Photograph 5. Photograph clearly showing the "step" of the structure in keeping with the gradient of the road deck above, the retaining wall can more clearly be seen, the Afon Wen lines passed under the far left span at the higher track-bed level.

The bridge itself is located on the Chester to Holyhead line at the western end of what was once Menai Bridge Station goods sidings (now long gone & unrecognizable). The bridge spanned 5 lines in total - the up & down lines to Caernarfon on the Afon Wen line in addition to the up & down lines to Holyhead of the Chester to Holyhead Railway plus a head-shunt section for the Menai Bridge goods sidings. The goods sidings themselves ended shortly before the bridge (east side), the head-shunt passed under it westward for a distance of some 50 meters before reaching the buffers.

Plan 1. Scale plan of the track work surrounding the bridge.

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The model itself was created accurately to scale in Autodesk 3DS Max taking around 1 day to complete & stands at 7,716 polys or 3,452 verts - this is a little more complicated than I originally envisaged & the detail of the model may be simplified prior to texturing using the photographs I took.

Here are a couple of HD (1920 x 1080) clay renders of the basic finished shape:

 Render 1. A birds eye view.

Render 2. As seen looking west from the horizontal viewport with the lines to Caernafron on the Afon Wen line passing under the far left span, the Menai Bridge goods sidings western end head-shunt passing under the center left span & the Holyhead lines of the Chester to Holyhead Railway passing under the center right span. No lines whatsoever passed under the far right span.