Large Scale Central

7 foot long Aluminum Bridge Kit (well, sort of a kit!)

Track and Trestles
#1

I built a Howe Truss Bridge from wood and brass nearly 12 years ago. see: http://davebodnar.com/railway/

It was made from Jarrah wood, a weather resistant species, but it was beginning to show its age. I decided to replace it with a similar bridge that was made of aluminum. Surely that would last longer!

I have been to the local Metal Supermarket twice so far and have accumulated enough angle and bar stock to build the sides of the bridge. Tomorrow I’ll return to the supermarket for material to connect the two sides.

Details on today’s work are here:

http://www.trainelectronics.com/Bridge7foot/

dave

one side done

one side of the bridge

Parts & the old bridge

old bridge and parts

#2

Dave, nice job so far, how are you going to do the curves.

Tom H

#3

Curves?

Cool bridge.

#4

Nice neat job Dave.

#5

tom huisenga said:

Dave, nice job so far, how are you going to do the curves.

Tom H

Tom - I am not planning on any curves on this bridge - just 7’ of straight aluminum!

dave

#6

Progress! Both sides are done and I experimented a bit with the cross supports this morning.

More photos here:

http://www.trainelectronics.com/Bridge7foot/

I’ll be off to get more aluminum this morning!

dave

Cross Supports

#7

Looking great Dave! That should definitely withstand the elements better. I love Metal Supermarket. I just got some aluminum for my switch project there. I feel very luck to have that resource handy. I assume good things are happening out back with the advent of this bridge. Are you using lock washers or nuts? The dissimilar metals may cause them to loosen with the different expansion rates. That is until they gauld form being dissimilar. I’ll be checking back for updates. Love it so far.

#8

Randy - this is coming along nicely if I do say so myself - off to Metal Supermarkets again in a few minutes.

Right now everything is held together with steel screws / nuts - these may eventually be replaced with aluminum pop rivets - can’t do that till I get it primed, painted and reassembled.

Stay tuned!

dave

#9

Nice job, Dave, and you make it look so easy! Even a caveman can do it!

#10

Nice project Dave, you may have ReSparked a Tempe, Arizona Lake UP bridge build! (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)

Your photos are an excellent guide.

#11

After another few hours the bridge is just about done. I still need to add cross members to the bottom and get it primed and painted. I may replace all of the bolts with aluminum pop rivets, but that is a project for another day.

I sat on the bridge as it is shown below and it easily supported all 200 pounds of me. Not bad for a 12 pound bridge!

More details here:

http://www.trainelectronics.com/Bridge7foot/

dave

Done!

#12

Cool a Red bridge!!(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

That is your favorite color?

#13

Nice bridge !

#14

Who cares about the bridge??? I want the Corvette! Man, you are cool!

Okay, okay, the bridge is sorta good too.

#15

I had to pull the 'Vette out of the garage to turn it into a workshop for the build… thus the nice background!

Just disassembled the bridge, deburred all of the holes, rubbed down each and every piece with an abrasive pad and got the first coat of primer on - looking better & better!

I hope to start putting it all back together tomorrow using pop rivets. Stay tuned!

dave

#16

Well I wasn’t gonna say anything but your not driving that vette enough cause it’s exempt from emissions…hehe

#17

David - Only about 2000 miles per year - it gets put away for Pittsburgh’s nasty winters!

dave

#18

Any pictures of the finish painted bridge Dave? How did all the riveting go? Installed yet?

#19

Randy - the bridge is just about done - it is on the layout but still needs to be permanently attached. The riveting went well but was lots tougher than using the bolts as the rivets don’t allow for much variation in alignment - I had to re-drill a few holes to expand them a bit - not a big deal but an added step.

The amazing thing is the rigidity of the structure once the rivets took the place of the nuts & bolts -

I added a few photos to the web page here: http://www.trainelectronics.com/Bridge7foot/index.htm

dave

Finished bridge

#20

That’s one heck of a bridge. Nice work