rrebell locoi1sa Kris. What you are asking is can this bridge be a ballasted deck girder? Yes it can. Do not put the bridge ties in and cover the floor with a piece of styrene. The real railroads would prefer a ballasted deck over a through deck. Track maintenance is easier and cheaper with a ballasted deck but the bridges themselves tended to rot out quicker than the open decks. Also ballasted deck bridges need drainage and usually over something that people do not travel under. These types of bridges would be over a small creek or drainage ditch, some sort of fill with loose banks, and such. I am also using the CV ties and turnout kits for my home layout. I don't bend the spikes over either. I use Pliobond adhesive to attach the rails to the ties. The bond is so strong that the ties would break before the bond lets go. I tested this before I decided on the adhesive. Pete Glad someone tested the Piobond as I got some to fix a turntable, any tricks??????????
locoi1sa Kris. What you are asking is can this bridge be a ballasted deck girder? Yes it can. Do not put the bridge ties in and cover the floor with a piece of styrene. The real railroads would prefer a ballasted deck over a through deck. Track maintenance is easier and cheaper with a ballasted deck but the bridges themselves tended to rot out quicker than the open decks. Also ballasted deck bridges need drainage and usually over something that people do not travel under. These types of bridges would be over a small creek or drainage ditch, some sort of fill with loose banks, and such. I am also using the CV ties and turnout kits for my home layout. I don't bend the spikes over either. I use Pliobond adhesive to attach the rails to the ties. The bond is so strong that the ties would break before the bond lets go. I tested this before I decided on the adhesive. Pete
Kris.
What you are asking is can this bridge be a ballasted deck girder? Yes it can. Do not put the bridge ties in and cover the floor with a piece of styrene. The real railroads would prefer a ballasted deck over a through deck. Track maintenance is easier and cheaper with a ballasted deck but the bridges themselves tended to rot out quicker than the open decks. Also ballasted deck bridges need drainage and usually over something that people do not travel under. These types of bridges would be over a small creek or drainage ditch, some sort of fill with loose banks, and such.
I am also using the CV ties and turnout kits for my home layout. I don't bend the spikes over either. I use Pliobond adhesive to attach the rails to the ties. The bond is so strong that the ties would break before the bond lets go. I tested this before I decided on the adhesive.
Pete
Pliobond is a rubber cement. You use it quite that same as Goo or other contact cements. It is not quite as stringy, but use care in applying. For small joints, I use a toothpick or small stip of wood/ styrene. You don't really need to coat both surfaces, you can do the press fit and slightly pull away. It won't string nearly as bad, but just go easy. If the area isn't as conspicuous or is rather large, (bottom of ties, full flat to flat) a small foam brush will work. The Pliobond when dry only has a slight amber color and a touch of sheen.
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
conrail6055I can't honestly say I trust "mashing" the premolded spikes over top the web of the rail will properly secure the rail, as the instruction sheet suggests. ...Seems to me a solid floor with a solid stick of flex track is much more bulletproof.
I have a 20-plus year old Central Valley truss bridge, using the same ties, that's been recycled through three layouts, and had the original code 70 rail replaced with code 83. All of the original spike heads survive, and stayed in place when I pulled the code 70 and slid the code 83 in. The CV spikes are a lot more sturdy than you give them credit for.
If you decide you'd rather have flex track, there's always the ballasted deck option you've already considered (which the prototype retrofits onto bridges formerly with open decks all the time), or you could use special bridge flex track sold by Walthers and Micro Engineering.
Rob Spangler
Thanks all, for your thoughts on this. Seems I have a bit of trial and error to contend with here. I certainly appreciate all the insight though, very much appreciated!
~Kris
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
I have one that is buit but I find now that the basic lauout is done, I need a shorter one, anyone done that????
Alot like bogp40 above (and using his advice) I also installed a CV single track girder bridge connected to a CV truss bridge. I used Chooch abutments at each end and a Chooch pier in the middle. I had a temporary atlas flextrack (on a piece of yardstick) in place first that fit just right, so I removed those rails and did peen the ties to the rails. I first peened a few, then installed the system (so i could slide the rails slightly), then peened most of the remaining tie "lumps" to the rails. I ensured the purchased abutments and pier were too tall, then cut and sanded them to the right height. The approaches were 5/8" plywood with cork roadbed. I ran the cork up to the abutment as you can see below. The bridge shoes rest atop the abutment shelf (below the top) and rail height off the bridge did not match up right so I had to file a grove in the abutment top (look closely to see the cut) for the approaching ties. It was a trial and error process. In the end I reinstalled the longer-then-bridges flex rail and the length remained just right.
Not shown, I also added some bridge guard rails that I mad by just bending the ends of some flexrails inward, then glued down with the Superglue gel.
Actually I did not get this quite right as one end has a bit of a hump; i.e., the approach and bridge do not line up perfectly horizontally (actually they are sloped so the slopes don't align quite right. My new long passenger cars accentuate it. I will be adjusting this all in the future; carefully handling the bridge unit. It will take sanding the approach a tad and lowering the abutment/bridge height slightly. I also had a height mismatch at the pier where the two bridges join because the CV truss bridge and girder bridge did not have the same shoe bottom to railhead vertical height. This required shimming under the shoes of the shorter one.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
When I built mine, I didn't use the tie strips that came with the kit. I used flextrack instead and didn't have to worry about mashing any spikes down.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
Never had an issue w/ the procedure for actually setting rails in place, however I wouldn't just rely on them, Drops of CA on every few ties or securing w/ Pliobond would be a better final lasting solution. , one installation was actually done w/ the CV truss single track combined w/ the open deck plate bridge. The member that built the CV truss placed the rails so to extend past the bridge and seam on the plate girder for added stability at the bridge "joint" over the center pier. This section of the layout is handlaid and the extended rails are actually acting as anchors past the abutments by spiking down to the wood ties.
During installation, we had a mishap and those extended rails snagged when bridge was dropped. Popped quite a bit of rail out of those "foolish" peened spikes, I reworked/ fit the rails and set w/ Pliobond.
The abutments are plaster castings over a wood "sub-abutment that is notched for the shoe shelf. Center pier done the same w/ tapered wood core and individual plaster cast strips for the stone.
Yes, the instruction to 'mash' the pre-moulded spikes worried me too. I used code 83 track and simply glued in place with CA. It worked wonderfully.
Hello all,
I've completed building this bridge and have a bit of concern with its' installation. I've 1/2" ply with 2" polyextruded styrofoam atop, so naturally, I needed to cut down the height of the bridge abutments I bought (from the bottom of course). The code 83 (whenever the heck we ever get more produced) will sit atop Midwest cork.
My hesitation is in the "floor" of the bridge. I can't honestly say I trust "mashing" the premolded spikes over top the web of the rail will properly secure the rail, as the instruction sheet suggests. I'd rather just have a solid floor that I can run cork and flex up to the bridge, and then just flex right across the bridge, since I'm also worried about height variations that might exist and compromise the integrity of just rails held by "mashed" plastic. Seems to me a solid floor with a solid stick of flex track is much more bulletproof.
Anyone else struggle with this? Detail isn't important for me in this area of the layout since it's out of sight for the most part so I'm not worried about needing to see incredible detail. My next problem is going to be trying to figure out how thick of a plastic floor I need since the assembled bridge with the molded tie floor and its' four feet mounted still puts the rails below the top of the abutments. Seems like the feet needed to be like 1/8" taller...