Track fiddlerI'm still looking for some ideas here guys. I can build my wooden bridges out of any species of wood that I want. I'm just not sure what the best choice for the most robust wood to use.
Don't ignore a frugal alternative to commercial scale lumber, that being the "craft sticks" from Forster (called Mini-Sticks I think) that you can find at a craft or art supply store. A plastic bag of 500 sticks sells for just a few bucks. They are nominally 2 5/8 inches long and are reasonably consistent in size and length. I measured them as scaling out this way: in N, they are 1' x 1' by 35' long. In HO they are 7" by 7" by 19 feet long. In O they are 3" by 3" by 10.5 feet long.
Also available are the Woodsie Dowels from Loew Cornell, and also available at Michaels and other craft stores. I measure them: in N, 11" diameter and 34 feet long. In HO, 6.5" diameter and 18.5 feet long. In O, 3" diameter and 10.25 feet long.
In both cases the quality of the wood is good, perhaps not great, but good, and they are strong. Takes stains and wood glues well.
Dave Nelson
I think balsa wood is great for modelling certain things like retaining walls and other structures made with squared timbers, but not for anything that will potentially be put under stress or bumped into.
This is one of my favourites. You may recognize it from the East Broad Top RR:
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
A 30-year Trestle still standing strong built out of Basswood with a glue that accepts stain.
I am intrigued here. I know common carpenter wood glue will repel stain. This glue you have used that accepts stain is something I am very interested in. I am not familiar with that but sure would like to be.
Again a beautiful Trestle Mel.
TF
That's a beautiful Trestle Mel. What you had done 30 years ago is what I'm getting ready to do now. If my modeling is half as good as yours I will be happy.
Very nice! Thanks for the feedback.
Um, ..... I'm still looking for some ideas here guys.
I can build my wooden bridges out of any species of wood that I want. I'm just not sure what the best choice for the most robust wood to use.
Micromark has mini table saws or mini band saws with guides to set up a miniature lumbermill to mill whatever dimensional lumber you want.
They are spendy but I'm not afraid of that if that'll help me out here.
Harder more robust Lumber is relatively cheap even if you're getting a chunk of ebony from Africa. Once you dice up a one by something, you get a lot of lumber for building bridges.
Now that just maximized the strength of the material but there is a problem and the problem is you need a darn good adhesive.
A strong material is nothing without a strong adhesive. Some adhesives do not soak into a hard dence material very well.
Any ideas out there guys?
Respectfully, Track Fiddler
IRONROOSTER Track fiddler Don't use balsa wood for anything. Balsa wood is fluff and it's crap. And yet many have used it. IIRC it was E.L. Moore's favorite for the structures he built. Paul
Track fiddler Don't use balsa wood for anything. Balsa wood is fluff and it's crap.
And yet many have used it. IIRC it was E.L. Moore's favorite for the structures he built.
Paul
Moore generally used a burning pen with balsa to get the siding type he wanted -- balsa almost "melts" but using a burning pen does close up the grain. He had other tricks involving metal combs, dried out ball point pens, etc. He got impressive results out of balsa that is for sure. I suspect Moore really mostly liked the cheapness of balsa - hobby shops sold it cheaply back in the 60s perhaps because there were more people building airplane models back then, so the shops carried a good stock of the stuff. It's less commonly found now.
40 some years ago, Logan Holtgrewe bought 4 big 5"x5" chunks of balsa because he wanted to build a replica of the crusier he served on. I don't have a pic of that, but it is museum quality.
Last year he pulled out another piece to build the hull of an ice breaker, a friend of his served on. He advises in 40 years, balsa turns into one hard son of a gun.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Very nice examples of work done here. I should'nt have dogged balsa wood across the board, it definitely has its uses.
I hadn't forgot about those model airplanes, it's just been a while since I've seen one. They need to be light of course, I don't think there's too many other choices.
I remember building those when I was a kid. They probably took a hundred hours plus in bits and pieces of time, when I had time. Then they always ended up in bits and pieces in a few seconds when I tried to fly one
The last one I built was a Corsair. I ended up hanging it with a piece of fish line from the ceiling and enjoyed looking at it for many years. That was a safe place for a balsa wood structure.
I agree styrene is the way to go these days. I have built four of my eight bridges with styrene and decided it was time to change it up for a while.
I built all my train bridges when I was a kid out of balsa wood and they were structurally fine unless something happened. And something always happened.
I'm kind of done with balsa wood now as I built a scissor truss bridge a very short time ago. I used it because I still had a bunch in a box I saved all these years and remembered how quick it fused together with wood glue.
An empty thermos was set next to it on the table right after I built it, not by me. It was knocked over...... again not by me and smashed the bridge
Being the bridge members in N scale are so fragile, I will not be using balsa wood anymore.
Track fiddlerDon't use balsa wood for anything. Balsa wood is fluff and it's crap.
I have used balsa wood for years for load spacing for pipe,structure steel, lumber ect loads made from ABS plastc shapes. I have used balsa strips for road crossings,for between the rail planking in front of a MOW speeder shed and home made crossbucks.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Track fiddler...Don't use balsa wood for anything. Balsa wood is fluff and it's crap....
Well, you're entitled to your opinion, but my father found it pretty useful in the '30s for building flying models of various aircraft...
The planes would be covered with silkspan, with many applications of model airplane "dope" (named, I think, for the stupor in which it put you after inhaling the fumes for too long).
He also built a very serviceable trestle for my first layout, using balsa.
Quarter-inch thick sheet balsa, along with dressmaker's pins, made a great surface for laying-out the various styrene components of the stockyards in Lowbanks...
...and in Elfrida...
...and while I did use basswood when constructing this model of a blast furnace (it was the only material at that time which was available as both corrugated siding and in structural shapes)...
...I quickly moved to styrene when it became available in a wide range of sheets, strips, and shapes. It affords very quick assembly and strong construction, and I'll be using it to represent a wooden trestle on the upper level of my layout.
I used wood for building my own house, and for the framework of my layout, and for some furniture, too, and used-up some basswood strip for lumber loads, but I'll not use it again on my layout, as I much prefer styrene.
Track fiddler..Bamboo skewers for HO trestles are indestructible. That is the cat's meow for the uprights....
I suppose, but only for a pile-type trestle, due to their round cross-section.
I used them for impaling the clumps of background trees (made from rock-wool insulation) here...
...then hid them with more fully-modelled trees...
You are correct about their strength, not that it's needed for holding insulation in place, but they are cheap and durable.
Wayne
If you will happily take it from a 35+ year veteran Carpenter.
Don't use balsa wood for anything. Balsa wood is fluff and it's crap. Basswood is the way to go.
Bamboo skewers for HO trestles are indestructible. That is the cat's meow for the uprights.
Now we got the wood orientated. I did find the 16th of an inch dowels that nobody can find for N scale.
I am going to start building some prototypical bents that are the starting blocks of wooden trestles.
Looking forward to this. I hope you have some time like I do. We may have to continue this to next weekend