Hi all, For a while, several years, I have had plans to install a bridge or bridges from the layout to a new area. There had been no real rush in the past to complete this but last Spring the “new area”, the Humboldt yards, was completed but left isolated from the rest of the layout. It was/is time to do something about the situation. The gap to be spanned is 12’-6" and the bridge deck height is about 5’ in the center. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what type of bridges I wanted to use to span this area. At first I was set on using deck girder spans but the more I thought about it they seemed kind of plain for such a long (at eye level) span. Finally I did some cardboard mock-ups of different spans and sifted it down to either a through truss or an arch style bridge. here is a picture of the gap to be spanned and the card mock-ups to give you a feel for the area. A through truss silhouette is on the right and an arch on the left. Each span will be 6 foot with a removable pier in the center.
After a lot of thought and consulting with quite a few others the arch style was chosen. Now where to find the bridges or how do I build an arch style, or what material to use? As luck would have it, about the time I started looking fellow lister Gary Armistead posted pictures of some arch bridges he was having made by Scott Lindsay of J&S Railcar. ( link http://www.jsrailcar.com/ ) I contacted Scott and we worked out the kinks, as the bridges I wanted were longer and wider than he normally produced. He made up a set of drawings for my approval, gave me a price and my bridges were on their way to becoming a reality. A month or so later a wooden crate arrived from Tennessee with the bridges. These bridges are laser cut from 1/4 inch black ABS plastic and glue together so they shipped in the flat in a crate 74 " by 16" by 2" and arrived in perfect condition.
The pieces sorted and checked for size and location.
The rivet plates come pre-cut and the rivet holes located. After looking at these for a while it finally dawned on me that they are laid out and cut on the sheet from left to right just exactly in the order that the go on the bridge. should make assembly a cinch.
Will report on the assembly.
Rick