My Bridge Project

Gary S.

Senior Member
Here are some pics of a bridge I built over the weekend. It will be used to span across a doorway so it can be removed and stored. The overall length is almost 4 feet, and it has no supports in the middle. I used a piece of "unistrut" which is a piece of steel channel 7/8 inch deep and 1-1/8 inch wide. I used three Atlas girder bridges, the floor sections out of 2 Atlas truss bridges, a Walthers singletrack truss bridge, and various sizes of strip styrene and T-sections. The bridge will fit into some groves at each side.

I scratchbuilt the girder sections underneath the Girder bridges, the truss attachments under the unistrut channel, and pieces here and there to make it look complete. Then the entire thing got a coat of flat black paint, then weathering with burnt umber and raw sienna for rust, some gray for dust and fading, then drybrushed the whole thing to bring out the details and edges.
 

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abutt

Member
If you built that over the weekend, how would you like to lend a hand on My layout for an hour or two?

Great looking bridge.

Allan
 

Gary S.

Senior Member
Here's a few more photos. I was really surprised at the pics with the flash, it REALLY brought out the weathering, I mean the bridge doesn't look anything like that heavily weathered in normal light. I need to take some pics out in the sun I guess.

What do yall think? Constructive criticism welcomed!
 

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Gary S.

Senior Member
abutt said:
If you built that over the weekend, how would you like to lend a hand on My layout for an hour or two?

Great looking bridge.

Thanks Allan. "Over the weekend" does not include all the previous time during the week spent plotting. planning, thinking, purchasing, and test fitting. The painting is what took the longest. There were hours and hours of dry-brushing that went into this bridge. Saturday night I didn't go to bed until 4am!
 

Ralph

Remember...it's for fun!
I think that looks grand Gary! The weathering looks just right to me. A clever solution for a removable bridge!
Ralph
 

shaygetz

Active Member
Gary S. said:
I used a piece of "unistrut" which is a piece of steel channel 7/8 inch deep and 1-1/8 inch wide.

Does that run the whole length of the bridge? That's is a great looking piece of work, looks like so many that we have crossing the bayous down here. You need a kid with a cane pole somewhere along that truss bridge.:thumb:
 

Gary S.

Senior Member
The unistrut does indeed run the entire length of the bridge. I cut some wood pieces to a very tight fit at each end and hammered them into the unistrut as a solid attachment point for each end of the bridge. Then I drilled a hole in one end for the feeder wires to come out. I will drill a hole down through the abutment and pass the wires through to a terminal block or a plug-in type connection under the layout. The neat thing is, the unistrut channel provided a perfect place to contain the feeder wires.

Hmm... instead of just passing the wires through to the underside, I wonder if I could fabricate some sort of plug-in connection on the top, some conductive blades under the bridge plug into a female receptacle on top of the abutment? This would save the hassle of terminating the wires every time I use the bridge.

For the abutments, I am considering making them from wood, then sealing and painting them to look like concrete, or perhaps I should make some forms and pour the abutments out of plaster?

Here are a couple of pics of the bottom. I need to paint the washers and nuts, and I also need to repaint the strut with flat black, and I wish I would have had smaller machine screws instead of what I used.
 

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jim currie

Active Member
neat idea using the unistrut weathering looks good are you in steam if so a touch of soot on the top of the truss would be needed.
 

Gary S.

Senior Member
didn't even think about dirtying the top... I won't be running steam, will be doing the 1960's I think, still, wouldn't the diesel exhaust put some sooti-ness up there? Probably not much, and I guess the rain would wash it off and make it run down?
 

RailRon

Active Member
Gary, this is a wonderful bridge model, and the weathering is superb! :thumb:

I'd like to hear a long freight train rumbling over that bridge...

Ron
 

Gary S.

Senior Member
Thanks for the comments, guys. Now the next project is to get the layout design finished so I can actually start laying some track.
 

ezdays

Out AZ way
Like everyone else, I think that's really, really good. :thumb::thumb:You asked for criticism, well, I can't think of any, it's that good.:D
 

MadHatter

Charging at full tilt.
Gary that looks awesome, I gave a friend of mine a similar idea except he is using an arched bridge in the middle, now I know the idea will work, thanks for posting pics so that we can all see!!
 

cnw1961

Member
Gary, great idea and very well executed :thumb: :thumb: Criticism? I am trying hard, but you didn’t give us a chance :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: .
 
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