Bridging Beagle Canyon

[FJ and G]

Beagle Canyon usually is a dry gully. But when storms come, it floods (from the drainpipe). So, I put on my hardhat and got my surveying instruments out, along with some engineering blueprints.

Here's what I came up with...

3 ft long bridge needed

consists of plumbing copper pipe, hammered flat on a rail anvil with a sledghammer

edge grinder to separate the 2 parts

treated wood backing, attached with 18 gauge brads and copper nails

girder supports consist of brass HO rail, attached with Bondo and silicon (my soldering skills utterly failed)

painted with primer and rust (exterior)

ballast = crusher fines from local mine

removed the 3rd rail as I'm converting all my toy trains to R/C

reason I ballasted the bridge is b/c I check & some prototype bridges are this way. Since I already mounted my turnouts on hardiboard, I could go with the usual girder construction, meaning daylight between the ties. And, the turnouts had to be in that position

construction continues...

[kimbrit]

Very nice Dave, very very nice. I've a friend who is a steel fabricator so he's doing a bridge for me out of 3mm steel.
Kim

[FJ and G]

Kim,

That's great! I envy those with welding equipment and experience as that is the ultimate way to go (I should have bought the gear and would have saved money on a squat rack I purchased for exercising!)

Tangerine Jack was doing some bridge fabing in steel. Understand he got busy but am eager to see your and his results.

If I had steel I wouldn't have even needed the wood supports! or the paint for that matter as I'd have had real rust

[tangerine-jack]

Even so it still looks great, and creative too! How is it mounted?

I'm slowly working on my bridge- see my other thread on rebuilding the Dixie D. Time certainly gets away from a person and I can only manage a few stolen hours here and there, but even so I'm getting some things done. It is nice to have welding gear, but like a 1962 Mosrite guitar won't make you a Nokie Edwards, great welding gear won't make you a metal worker. If you are interested in home welding, then pick up a Lincoln 120V arc welder, you can get them all day long at Home Depot for around $250. It's easy to use (and learn on!) and it will serve needs for a long time to come.

BTW- I just picked up a new (and I mean BRAND NEW) welding trailer for my unit, $97,000 dollars worth, but ooohh, it would be nice to have at the house! MIG, TIG and gas welding, complete with built in generator and air compressor with full and complete tool kit included. Very nice, thanks Uncle Sam!

[ttrigg]

TJ:

If you didn't waste so much time in fantasyland, aka Rosebud Falls Gazette, then you might have more time to get work done.

OOOOhhhhhhh trailer sounds nice!!!!!!

Hey, if it ain't fun then why do it? right?

David:

Just cannot get over you're simple and sweet concept of what for most folks would be a difficult bridge design job. If I had designed that one, I would have over engineered it, thereby making it almost impossible to build.

Well Done.

[FJ and G]

Thanks, Tom.

TJ,

The roadbed is hardiboard. The girder is attached to two 1.5" X 1.5" treated pine strips that run the length of the bridge. I'm not sure if they'll warp but if they do, changing them out to something more sturdy shouldn't be too much of a problem. I often wonder sometimes when I see people's elaborate trestles if they have a problem with warping.

The abutments are temporarily stone. I used a concrete blade to shape some concrete block abutments and then "painted" them with Durham's water putty to try & make it look like cement but it came out an aweful yellow color so I'm not yet done with this project.

It seems that like you I have just too many projects. I don't know how some folks can get bored. I'm literally overwhelmed with stuff to do!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G

Thanks, Tom.

TJ,

The roadbed is hardiboard. The girder is attached to two 1.5" X 1.5" treated pine strips that run the length of the bridge. I'm not sure if they'll warp but if they do, changing them out to something more sturdy shouldn't be too much of a problem. I often wonder sometimes when I see people's elaborate trestles if they have a problem with warping.

Nice looking bridge. You'll probably experience some minor warping depending how dry your PTL strips were before you intalled them. Shouldn't be anything to worry about. IME, with wood outdoors, a good film finish will keep kiln dried stock straight, if it's that way when the stucture is put together in the first place.

Regarding welding your own bridges... a significant portion of the expense in having this done is the cutting and fitting, not necessarily the welding. If you want to try this in the future, I'd see if you can locate a small shop to do the welding for you. (Around here the rates are $30 to $40 an hour for common steel). if you bring in your stock already cut and squared, they'll tack it together for you.

Thin wall square steel tube is relatively cheap and available. Cutting the stock and squaring the ends isn't that difficult, just onerous. [:D] Of course, a simple design is a huge help. I don't think I'd be tacking a Warren truss right off. [;)] A side benefit of building one of these monsters yourself: the next time you're eyeballin' the wares at Eaglewings, their prices will look pretty darn good to you. [:p]

[kstrong]

Looks good, Dave. I'll bet hammering that copper pipe flat got rid of a lot of office tension for you, eh? Now we really know why hobbies are therapeutic. [:)]

One caution about the Durham's Water Putty - it's a gypsum based product, and will deteriorate rather quickly when exposed to moisture. My dad had originally used that on a few of his structures with rather ugly results after a season or two. A better choice would be Quickrete's vinyl patching cement or anchor cement. You can probably get away with just slathering on a layer on top of the Durham's stuff, but a few taps with a sledge hammer (now that you've gotten lots of practice [;)]) would probably dislodge most of it from the stone, leaving you a more-or-less clean surface to work with.

Later,

K

[FJ and G]

Thanks, Bob, Kevin,

Your advice much appreciated. When I'm done building this monster, I will be able to write a tome on all of the mistakes I made and all of the rework required. But I'm learning a lot and not at all stressed when things go wrong.

Tomorrow I'm taking a day off to try to install R/C in my SD-45 (O scale). NEver tried it before and I'll surely blow an engine or 2!

-------

BTW, when I got my April GRR in the mail yesterday and saw the monster layout out in Idaho, I just wanted to throw in the towel. I'll never have the money, land, or mountainous scenery that lucky guy has. What a show!

[tangerine-jack]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G

Thanks, Bob, Kevin,
...............................
BTW, when I got my April GRR in the mail yesterday and saw the monster layout out in Idaho, I just wanted to throw in the towel. I'll never have the money, land, or mountainous scenery that lucky guy has. What a show!

Now now, Dave, that's no way to be. We need to be inspired by the monster layouts, not put off by them. Unless I hit 6 good numbers for the $235 mil lottery, I'll never have a huge layout either, but I am very happy with what I have now. Nobody touched anything on my railroad but me, I made everything- nothing was farmed out to subcontractors or commercial landscapers. I enjoy looking at the mega-huge railroads, but I can relax with mine any time I want to, and I don't have to ask permission. Small can be good, it gives you a chance to increase quality without increasing cost.

[vsmith]

Wow thats a very innovative use of materials

[kimbrit]

Quite right TJ, always be proud of what you build, it's unique, it's a statement about you and who you are and most important - it's yours!! There's lots of guys out there who buy the mags but haven't made the plunge yet, all RR's, big or small, are our inspiration to them to get into the garden.
Cheers,
Kim