Safety First

Driving the last spike on my layout in May 2015

Making My Layout A Safer Place....by Don Janes

      It's hard to believe that it has been five years since I finished the mainline around my 12' x 50' layout.  As you can see in the lead photo I drove the last spike in the lift out bridge to complete the circuit.  This bridge is extremely rigid being made out of 1x4 pine.  The sides are grooved to fit the deck and the deck glued to the sides.  The bridge sits on a block at each end that is glued and screwed to the framework. Needless to say, if one were to walk into this bridge you would sustain more damage than the bridge.  Having said that I don't know how many times I have come down the basement and planned to enter the train room only to find the bridge in place and almost ran into it.  The natural wood colour of the bridge just does not stand out and almost blends into the doorway.  I needed to find a solution to this problem.  For about 5 years I have been planning to paint the bridge and add safety strips to make the bridge more noticeable.  

     Finishing the bridge actually came about by accident. I have been painting a brass CN transfer caboose and the project has been stalled by not knowing what I would use for the yellow reflective safety paint on the end of the caboose over the platform.  Well, a couple of weeks ago on one of my Canadian modelling Facebook groups a fellow posted some photos of a brass CN transfer caboose similar to mine with the ends painted reflective yellow. I asked him what he used and he said it was black and yellow reflective tape he got at Princess Auto. He just traced the end of the caboose on the tape and cut out a piece to fit the end.  Since the Covid 19 epidemic keeps me close to home I went on line and saw they had two different brands of this tape on their web site.  Not being sure which one I should use I ordered a 2"x 4' roll of each brand.  Now, the end if the caboose sure wasn't going to take anywhere near that much so I decided to use it to put on the sides of my lift out bridge. That is the long winded story behind this project.

The first train to make a complete circuit on the layout.  The bridge doesn't really stand out in its natural wood colour.

    I took the bridge into my workshop and gave it a coat of primer then brushed on a coat of flat black which really didn't look that good so once that dried I took it out to the garage and gave it a couple of coats of semi gloss black which really improved its appearance.  I left the bridge to dry until the tape arrived about a week later.

The finished bridge with the semi gloss paint waiting for the tape to arrive

The tape on the left is made by Life Safe and was $14.00 on sale for $6.00 and the tape on the right is the Princess Auto brand and was $5.00. Both are 24"x 4ft rolls

     The tape on the left has a more yellow colour which I think is closer to what would be on the CN caboose whereas the one on the right is more of a yellow/gold colour. Either work well on the bridge to catch your attention. Below you can see the bridge with the safety stripes applied.

The bridge with the safety stripes applied.

       As you can see from the photos below, the bridge is much more visible from either side and should reduce the risk of injury by a lot. Who knows, I might even get the caboose done now.

The finished bridge in place. It is actually quite attractive if you ask me.