M2 + M4 treadway Bridge Model

[Robin Craig]

Well,

A number of people on here likely looked at this over a year ago, but it seems I am the only person who got off the pot.

After pleading with the higher domestic authority, right in the preparation to build a new house, I received the signal to buy something that just had to be saved.

Ron Fitzpatrick, whom some will know as a supplier of Jeep parts etc, had bought these big crates as part of a job lot. I am a devotee of the Bailey bridge system and saw this as a reasonable substitute in the mean time.

So, over the next few posts I will show you guys what arrived. There is a ton of parts and fasteners to be sorted through. What I have is 3 sets in parts and not complete. This winter I will be spending some serious time doing inventory and will actually build it up in the 3 forms I have.

T

R

[Robin Craig]

You can see from this box that some of this set was made in 1957.

Some of it was made by this California company that has an association with Disney.

R

[Robin Craig]

There seems to be three styles of support for the treadway that were used.

In no particular order, lets start with the boats.

These are made of cast aluminum and mate transom to transom with a stud engaging the other that would have had a pin to secure it. There are deck pieces ad beams I have yet to sort out.

My spidey senses say this stuff is around 1:6 scale ie GI Joe or Action Man scale.

The second type of support is the round end rubber boat.

And the third is a point end inflatable boat style

Also there are two cast aluminum work boats, each different. This is one of them

R

[Ian Johns]

I'm pretty sure this is the set we have 2/3 of. When complete it must be huge. We just put together a small bridge without the pontoons and it was 4 feet long. I'm told we are also missing some of the hand rails and small parts.

[Robin Craig]

The number of small parts involved is incredible.

Here are a few snap shots of some of those many parts.

Ian, which method of supporting the treadway do you have? The posts with feet or the inflatable boats of the aluminum boats?

See the handrail clamp components?

Robin

[Ian Johns]

I believe it's the inflatable boats. I'm going to go see it next week on the way home from work. I'm told there is a collector down in Ohio who has these sets. Here is a photo from when we received them.

[motto]

Hi Robin, hi Ian

Those kits must have been horrendously expensive to produce. Do you have any information on the cost or the number of kits supplied?

I imagine they would have paid for themselves in reduced training costs as everything being the same as the full scale version the construction sequence would also be the same, just much faster and no labour or equipment required.

What a unique and interesting artefact.

David

[Scott Bentley]

Although most of the EWBB stuff is gone now (The Panels seem to grow legs), we still have the complete MGB kits at at the Engineer School in Gagetown. Not only is it incredibly detailed, all the component weights are to scale as well, so you can go through the building and booming sequence and have actual centre of gravities and so on.

Here's a pic of yours truly building EWBB at 2 CER in Petawawa in 1995. I was on one of the last basic Field Engineer courses to be trained on the EWBB before we changed it up for ACROW. Funny, thanks to remotivation in the form of PT, I can still remember the EWBB bay tightening sequence, Rakers, Bracing Frames, Transom Clamps, and Sway Braces.... Chimo

[Ian Johns]

Here's some more photos I took this morning. One box is missing along with the manual and some small parts. So it's a class 60 floating bridge and I'm told when assembled it's 12 to 15 feet long. I believe it has feet and pontoons Robin.

Sorry I missed you at the show Robin. I stayed about 4 hours, mostly sitting and talking to Andre.