Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
Dave, Plan Number 29 appears to be an ambitious plan from my point of view. In addition to the many bridges, the ruling grade is 4%. But I digress … Starting at Piedmont headed to Paint Springs you cross a double track bridge over a waterway. The plan appears to call for a twelve-inch span. I recommend the Walthers Double track truss bridge, which is about eighteen inches long. I have heard that this bridge doesn’t have the necessary clearance to run double stack cars but I doubt you will be running this length car on 18 inch radius curves. You would have to take the curve out of this portion of the track plan to install an eighteen inch span. Another option is to use the double track thru girder bridge made by Central Valley, which spans 72 scale feet. The second bridge occurs just before the tunnel after passing Paint Springs. You could use a fifty foot deck girder bridge by Micro Engineering because there is plenty of overhead clearance over the track below; however, it probably would not look as good as a thru girder bridge because an eighteen inch radius curve on this span would look a bit like a caricature. The next bridge, after the tunnel, may be handled the same way since there is no problem with clearance under the bridge. Then you come to a three span bridge. You will probably have to scratch build or kit bash a model for the first span. The first span crosses over another track at a severe skew but there is a good bit of clearance over the track below. The easy solution for this span is to kit bash a Micro Engineering 50 foot plate girder span and build it on a suitable skew. Again, I believe this bridge will look better as a thru girder but building a thru girder bridge on a skew is a bigger challenge. The second and third spans would also look good as plate girder spans of either the deck or thru girder type. It would be highly unusual to see a truss span mixed with plate girder spans of the same length. After the three span bridge before Gorge Crossing you go a good ways before you get to the next span over the lower narrows. This bridge is not very high over the track below, so a through span is needed. You could use a through truss but you will probably have to kit bask or scratch build one for this to have adequate horizontal clearance due to the tight curve. A fifty to sixty five foot span should be fine here, but fifty works better than sixty five because of the curvature. The next bridge comes up just before Gorge Crossing over the Saluda River. Any straight bridge should do here but I would see if the 150 foot single track truss bridge made by Central Valley would fit into the length of the tangent track leading to the crossing. If you can’t fit the 150 foot bridge in here, another bridge matching one of the bridges already used would do fine. The reason you want to do this is because railroads have a ‘Family’ look, meaning that similar items are all built using the same techniques to save time and money. The last bridge, the covered bridge on the branch line will probably have to be scratch built because I don’t know of anyone producing a covered railroad bridge. I believe Walthers recently released a covered roadway bridge but I don’t think it would work as a railroad bridge. If you are interested in wooden trestles, you could build the two bridges near Tallulah this way. It is really a matter of taste, so you should decide that for yourself. If you do, however, I recommend building the trestle with a main span deck truss in the middle for additional clearance and better appearance. As I recall, there is a picture of such a model trestle in Bruce Chub’s book, “How to Operate Your Model Railroad” and I recommend the book highly. I also recommend the book from Kalmbach(sp?) about Model Railroad Bridges and Trestles. Also, I recommend the special ‘Bridge Track’ manufactured by Micro Engineering which is supplied with the Micro Engineering kits and may be purchased in 36 inch flex track pieces. Good Luck and let us know how it goes. - Ed
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag

Update Reply

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Model Railroader Newsletter See all

Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!

Subscriber & Member Login

Edit post

Post Body

Tags (Optional)

Subscriber & Member Login

Users Online

Search the Community