The Prototype:
Cantilever Signal Bridges have been a part of railroading since the early 1900's. Many early style Cantilever bridges are still holding strong in spots all across the country, but slowly, these too are being replaced by their modern counterparts due to increased safety restrictions by the FRA (and perhaps OSHA) to keep signal maintainers safe while working on these structures.

The first prototype to be released is a common Santa Fe/Southern Pacific style bridge seen literally all over the USA. Still standing strong today, the prototype is located at the very west end of Fullerton, CA, on the BNSF mainline at a spot called "Basta".

The Model:
As simple as they appear, Cantilever signal bridges often include complex curves and many fine details. In order to get our bridge as accurate as possible, we literally took dimensions off of the prototype bridge.

After acquiring the dimensions, BLMA used a CAD program to generate a rendering of the main components of the bridge, then placed the rendering over a photograph to faithfully recreate every detail down to the placement of rivets.