Once upon a time, railway bridges adorned with advertising were quite a common sight. Nowadays, Network Rail seem happier to cover them with bright yellow stripes in a desperate attempt to stop idiot truckers driving all lorries under them and causing a "bridge strike" requiring the closure of both road and rail while engineers work out if the bridge is going to collapse.
This rare example is on the London Road, heading into Coventry. Photography is normally difficult as you are hurtling toward the ring road of doom, but a few days ago, I was on the top deck of a bus which pulled in to a stop, allowing me a decent shot.
According to an article in the Coventry Evening Telegraph, this is one of only two Ferodo bridges left, from 12 originals. They stopped paying for the sign years ago, and now can't re-start as Network Rail no longer sells advertising space on them.
For modellers, this would be an eye-catching bit of scenery and pretty easy to do. The letters could be grabbed from a photo, cut out and drawn around on a white-painted bridge side. Then paint the black bits carefully.
In case anyone is wondering, Ferodo isn't a character from Lord of the Rings, but a brake shoe manufacturer.
1 comment:
Phil, I remember seeing "Feredo" lettering on bridges in the 1970s, but I cannot say exactly where -- somewhere in Stoke-on-Trent probably. (It wouldn't have been Coventry.) I was hoping the linked article might have listed the locations of all of them...
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