Large Scale Central

The DÜRR 🌵 (A Trilogy in 5 Parts) PART 2

a man does, what a man must do…

but, for the déjà vú - that was not very precise.
Mr. Addams and Kormsen Kaos Kompanie use different styles of truss-bridges for their Krashes.

your’s troolie,

Bill, this isn’t the cheapest approach, but you could have two 5’ double bridges made, with the single pier in the middle. Or two 4 footers, with fat abutments at the end. Or a 6’ + 4’, but I’d cringe at the asymmetry… that’s just me though.

I’ve seen these bridges up close, and they’re quite beautiful. And being aluminum, they’re easy to lift out for maintenance.

One thing to notice: their “super detailed” versions have tons of rivets, and are much more pricey.

But how much to get it to him … :thinking:

In this person s layout you can see some nice trestle work …

Once you figure the sizes of the bents its just one after another until your done . .

The suggestion of twin bridges brings to mind what I did years ago on the old RR.
Each section is 6 foot long and only single tracked, they are Laser cut from 1/4 inch ABS plastic.
The piers were metal angle and lathe plastered and embossed with a stone pattern.

The bridges are now installed on the new RR individually and have held up well over the last 15 plus years.

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Beautiful bridges, Sean.

Sean, where does the “nemesis” part come in?

Shipping since COVID has become ridiculously expensive. It used to be the cost of the item from the USA now it’s twice the cost. Add in the exchange rate, I generally multiply the price of the purchase by 3.3 to see what my total costs are. Surprisingly Europe is cheaper when shipping is involved.

Rick, how long did that spectacular piece of engineering take to build?

To clarify that remark, I started on my trestle designs a few years ago and have yet to install them. My good friend Sean, however, ensures from time to time that I don’t forget that effort, and get on with it and complete that project.

It’s been a big point of procrastination for me… but I intend to get them done this coming spring.

Along with my incredibly over-thunk switch machine project, which will hopefully be accomplished by a purely mechanical (zero electrons) approach.

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I hear ya, Bill. I was thinking that, since your planter box steel originated in the states, well, how about some bridges? But yeah, very expensive even without shipping and exchange rate.

I wonder if anyone knows of a build log for Marty Cozad’s high line bridge on his North Table Creek garden rr?

Probably all-welded, right? Anyway, I just bring it up as an example of minimal footprint. I really like Rick’s beautiful example as well.

And I harp on the minimal footprint thing, because of the lawn and its upkeep. With Rick’s approach, you can mow and weedwhack around the piers. A trestle is fine, however, if you make a gravel path for it on the lawn that you can mow up to.

just 2 more cents…

Fortunately we are big exporters of iron and steel here, Cliff. Infact much of our soil rusted.

We’ve even got automated trains to get the hematite to port.

I probably should learn to weld, eh?

Or concrete like this fellow who popped up on Pinterest

That fellow is Daniel Peck and he makes awesome metal buildings

Yes, but your Corten was made in Arizona I think…

Cliff I like the idea of a low maintenance bridge and being able to whipper-snip around the base. I’ve been surprised how much the sun affected the woods shingles on my buildings.

As usual, you’ve taught me something new. I thought that a country that successfully replaced wooden studs with steel for house construction would at least be producing this steel under license. Apologies, Cliff! I should have used the correct term, weathering steel.

It turns out that weathering steel has been around since the 1930s and gained architectural popularity in the 1950s. COR-TEN is the trademarked name from U.S. Steel, derived from its two primary properties: corrosion resistance and tensile strength. While “COR-TEN” refers specifically to this U.S. Steel product, over time, the name has become synonymous with weathering steel in general. Other manufacturers have produced similar materials under different names, leading to the generic use of “Corten” (without the hyphen). This phenomenon is similar to how “Coke” in the Southern U.S. refers to any cola or soft drink, just as “Band-Aid” and “Kleenex” have become generic terms for adhesive bandages and tissues, respectively.

And yes, you are correct—we do import COR-TEN! Australia produces a version of corten known as REDCOR. I’m not sure what type of corten I have.

But I’d love those metal bridges.

The one thing from Arizona that we are very proud to own is Ayres Rock. Apparently digging it up caused a bit of erosion leaving Arizona with quite a grand canyon.

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Bill, love your Ayer’s / GC joke, haahhaaa! I wanna see the starship-crane that hauled that sucker!

Thanks for the information on the Corten, makes perfect sense. A lot more sense than shipping megatons of steel from the other side of the planet, just because of a weathering recipe!

Speaking of bridges and maintenance, here’s a few more thoughts.

I totally agree with Sean that once you set up the jig, you mass produce them. I’ll be doing that soon. And for a bridge on a budget, you can’t beat it. And for maintenance, you could lay a nice path of pavers to mow up to. And if you lay them well, with a slightly forgiving / shimmable base of some sort, you could use the same bent all the way over. And sure, there’s precedent for double-track. Not much, but enough to proceed with your hobby intentions!

Also, depending on the era, you might consider a simple girder / beam approach. You can use an aluminum channel, with the legs pointed up or down, depending on the style you wish to portray. Along the length you can adhere cosmetic angles, gussets, flanges, etc.; and even go nuts with rivets. Jerry B (naptowneng) did a great job with that on his lengthy span. Need to hunt up a photo…

Point being, minimal expense, two abutments and a single pier (or two), lightweight enough to take out and work on (say, if the rivet itch gets to you), and cheap enough to replace with something else down the road if that strikes your fancy.

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This might help

Agreed! I’m having trouble keeping up! Looks fantastic so far.

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should I be looking at volume 1 as well?

Can’t hurt unless you can not find it