Scottish civil engineer Michael Dineen with his giant Lego model of the Forth Bridge which measures 4.7m long.
A civil engineer’s bid to persuade Lego to create an official set of the Forth Bridge has received more than 8,600 votes. Michael Dineen has until September to gain the 10,000 online supporters needed for the Danish toy company to consider his version of the World Heritage site as a Lego Ideas set.
The real Forth Bridge
The 42-year-old, who has the backing of the Forth Bridge operators, is delighted with the support and has urged as many people as possible to log on and vote.
If successful, his design will become Scotland’s first ever official Lego set.
Michael spent four months painstakingly recreating the one-and-a-half-mile-long bridge in plastic form. He used around 3,000 bricks and a great degree of trial and error to build the 15foot long model. He has the support of a descendent of Victorian engineer Sir William Arrol, whose company built the iconic rail bridge. Arrol’s great-grand niece left a comment on the Lego Ideas website. She said: This bridge was built by my great-grand uncle, an extraordinary Victorian engineer called William Arrol. It is now an official Unesco World Heritage site and it would be fantastic to commemorate it in this way.”
Michael’s bid was boosted in March when his model formed part of the real Forth Bridge’s 130th anniversary celebrations. He received further exposure when it featured in the BBC Scotland documentary Inside Central Station. Michael, who worked in South Queensferry in the shadow of the iconic bridge, said the model was incredible fun to build. “It also teaches those building it about the fundamental principles of bridge design, particularly how the real Forth Bridge was built.”
What would the set contain?
Michael used official Lego pieces for his original model but had to paint them the russet colour of the Forth Bridge himself. If taken on as a Lego set, each box would contain one main tower, both sides of the balanced cantilever, two halves of the suspended section, the deck and one small end tower.
Lego has given the design its backing, saying: “Best of luck as you continue to rally support for your project.”
People can vote for Michael’s design online at ideas.lego.com/projects.