The Bailey is a one lane bridge. It was used by the US and British Armies until the 1990's. With the new emphasis on mobility on the battlefield, it has been superceeded by the Medium Girder Bridge, which is faster to erect and considered a "temporary" bridge vice the Bailey's "Semi Permanant" nature. The Bailey also cannot handle the weight of an M1 Abrahms unless you take it up to "Double-Double" configuration or higher, and still the weight of the tank tears apart the decking (chess). Baileys are still used in humanitarian service in countries hit by natural disasters needing bridges being built or replaced, but they now fall on the Army Corps of Engineers I believe! In combat, the MGB rules and the Bailey is a throwback to the great wars, but it is a beautiful piece of engineering. It's creator, Sir Donald Bailey was Knighted for his invention! Mine is an actual scale model used by the US Army and it was sent to a Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service, where someone bought it as scrap and sold it to me on ebay!

I have two other model bridges. I have a Pontoon Treadway and a LTR (Light Tactical Raft) which uses canoe like pontons (NOT inflatable Pontoons like the Treadway) and can be a section of a bridge or by having outboard motors attached, it can be used as a raft to ferry vehciles and equipment. Both are former military scale models used to train Army Combat Engineers when weather or safety conditions would not allow them to work on the REAL bridges!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailey_Bridge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_Girder_Bridge

All this and an education, too! :O