I remember Lionel’s animated bascule bridge from the early days when I was a young boy. When I looked in the toy shop window and saw it operating, it was really a wonder. Unfortunately I never had a chance to have the bridge, and it is a rare collector’s item today. For those of you who also wished you could have an operating bascule bridge, I have good news for you. This afternoon I had the pleasure of adding an animated bascule bridge to my Trainz layout, and it is a great piece of animation.

The bridge is normally in the up position. When trains approach, the bridge lowers to allow the train to pass. In the above screen shot I used two bascule bridges side by side. You can see how the bridge has lowered to allow the freight to pass while the bridge on the other line, that has no traffic on it, is in the upright position. The key to the operation of the bridge is by the use of invisible track that can only be seen as a red line when you are looking at the bridge in Surveyor.

The bridge is easy to install and is placed as a complete scenery object. You will need to adjust the height of the bridge so the track on the bridge will line up with the approach track, but this is an easy process. I just set the bottom level up or down until I had a proper match. Once that was done, I joined the track to the bridge, filled back in the water, and operations started.

Vulcan really did a nice job on this bridge and it will be a great addition to any route where your tracks have to pass over water and will otherwise interfere with boat traffic. The bascule bridge is at the Trainz Download Station; the KUID number is 60238:27201. Add one to your route and watch the action!

John

Article and screen shots ©2004 John D'Angelo. All rights reserved.