Ross, oh yea. That’s my go to reference.
Kevin,
Yes you can. I was the one that went off the reservation with the Howe Truss thing and I learned a lot. I could still make an argument for what is really a Howe Truss design but who the hell really cares. Make a bridge how(e) you like and it and call it whatever you want. None of us will loose sleep over it.
There is a beautiful restored cover bridge of the Howe Truss Design located in Cottage Grove, Oregon. I think the original, unrestored version is the one shown in the Bridges book by Kalmbach. I based my 5 foot long redwood bridge on this design.
That is a true Howe!!! Wish you had a picture of where the diagonal braces come to rest at the bottom. But at the top the key is the angled blocks and square cut beams By using flush cut beams landing on angled block the load is transferred squarely instead of wanting to shear. That is what Howe patented.
Devon… Here are some other photos I have. I really liked the metal V-Blocks that helped hold the bridge together. The proved impracticable to duplicate for the bridge model I was building for outdoors. Someone, such as Ozark Miniatures, should cast the parts out of metal.
The Covered Railroad Bridge is located in Cottage Grove, Oregon. Here is a webpage with all of the information: http://www.cottagegrove.org/chambers.html Go to the bottom of the page and they explain how it is a Howe Truss Bridge! There are a lot of other covered bridges in Cottage Grove. Instead of tearing them down they brought them in to make a tourist attraction…
If you go to see the bridge, and I highly recommend it, stop in Historic Downtown Cottage Grove and have brunch at Buster’s Main Street Cafe. Great food! 'Nuf said…
Russ Miller
NGRC 2016 Chairman
We have a gentleman on here who wants to cast bronze parts. Maybe if someone drew up those V blocks and such he could cast them.