I have released the first of the two bridge kits on EBay, and I have added some photos of the finished kit.
The bridge kit is based on the Lions Rd-Cougal Northern NSW, border loop area. However it would look at home over any creek on most Australian themed layouts, and perhaps, other layouts based on a different country.
The "Lions Road" is a road running between the Summerland way in N.S.W, and a junction at the Mount Lindesay highway. It is a road that joins two pre-existing sections of rural road - Wilson Avenue in New South Wales, and Running Creek Road in Queensland. It was so named as most of the funding, planning and voluntary labour for the road came from the Kyogle branch of the Lions club. A Kyogle resident, Jack Hurley, was one of the most prominent advocates for the road and despite the NSW Government rejecting the idea in 1969, it was opened the following year.
A good deal of its length is a narrow one-lane road that cannot be used by trucks or cars towing caravans/trailers. It was only recently that the road was fully sealed with bitumen. The road has many creek crossings along its length, and several of the bridges are of wooden construction that can only support low weights.
Kyogle has over 240 bridges and around half are made of wood. My research tells me the bridge I have based my kit on is much older than the Lions Rd itself! It appears the pre-existing roads may date back to the late 1800's and were mostly used for logging. Timber cutters made serious in-roads into the regions resources, being red cedar, and bullock teams made their own roads and bridges as they worked the area.
.Cheers Dean.
