05-23-2007 04:58 AM
03-31-2014 07:09 AM
Best of all, you get to have another golden spike ceremony! martoonies for everyone.
04-02-2014 04:45 AM
I don't need no stinkin' gold spike or any other excuse to drink. No problem. I drink, I get drunk, I fall down. No problem......
Most of the yard track is laid and I'm working on the industry sidings. Still waiting for supplies from Walthers though which are causing a delay. Maybe I'll take a break and build another structure.
04-04-2014 07:32 AM
better hope you don't get another blizzard that would shut down airlines and ferry. Otherwise you won't see your supplies til summer.
04-06-2014 04:32 AM
Have all the yard and industrial area tracks laid and wired in. Running some switching for fun until the rest of my supplies get here. Got three new Bar Mills structure kits to build this week. Right now I'm bashing a deck girder bridge for the gorge area from three HO through girder bridges. I hope it works.
04-07-2014 08:14 AM
Pete,
If it doesn't work be sure to post pictuers of the Great Gorge Train Wreck. Maybe you could take a video of the first time the trains go over the girder bridge just in case....
Sounds like progress,
Charles
04-13-2014 05:37 AM
04-13-2014 06:58 PM
I like the far one best, probably the hardest to build, I think three the same would look good.
04-14-2014 04:57 AM - edited 04-14-2014 04:59 AM
Funny how you thought just the oposite of me. I thought three the same would look boring. And here's a bit of news for you. All three are HO scale bridges. The trestle in the back is a bash of three Campbell trestles. The middle one is two Campbell deck bridges and finally the front one is three Walthers ballasted deck bridges put together. I just used the girders from that kit and applied them to the top of a 1/8" basswod floor. Then I laid the On30 track on top, placed guard rails on the sides and ballasted the track. The wood trestle and deck bridge have hand laid On30 rail on the HO scale ties. Since my trains are heavy, these small bridges needed to be strong, so I tested them with 25 pounds of weight. As you can see, they held up. BTW, my heaviest engine in the 4-6-0 Baldwin. It weighs 12 pounds.
Many moons ago when in college studying architecture, we were challenged to build a bridge that would hold our weight in 1/4" scale, which is the usual scle for drawing architectural plans. I and my partner built a trestle out of O scale lumber using the plans that the HO scale kit provided. We just blew them up. All the joints were glued with carpenter's glue and pinned with straight pins, cut down, to represent bolts. The trestle was flat bottomed, not stepped like the one on this layout. It was 12" tall and 30" long. The test was, of course, to stand on your creation. Most of the entries collapsed under the weight of their builders. Ours did not. I weighed 135 pounds at the time and the darn trestle held me up. What is the point of this story? Just to tell you that the Campbell designs are honestly engineered to be sturdy.
And here is another view.
04-14-2014 06:07 AM
Still reckon the tressle by three, it seems like the right era for your railroad, the other two look too modern, but in reality if they were building 3 bridges they woul use the same material and building techniques, wouldn't they ?
04-15-2014 03:53 AM
Ah, but the branch line is funded by timber sales and therefore wood is the material of choice for the switch backs. The mainline is a little wealthier and can afford a more modern crossing. Besides, John Allen used a mixture of bridges in his four bridge scene on th G&D. It's my railroad and I'll do it my way. 🙂
04-15-2014 04:47 AM
Maybe the mainline bridge was once wood, but it burned down so they built the newer steel bridge. That seemed to happen a lot in the steam days, trains setting bridges on fire.
04-15-2014 05:21 AM
OK,OK I just know what I like and passed that comment
04-16-2014 05:19 AM
Part of the problem is tha I needed a shallow bridge at that point. The trestle and deck bridges have more air under them than the girder bridge.
04-19-2014 04:31 AM
Laid all the cork on the lower level and did some track laying too. Busy day yesterday. I had one turnout that had a short in it so I had to wire around it. Works fine now. Hope to get some more track down today. It is great having the all new power busses.
04-23-2014 04:51 AM
More track down and would you believe that I now have another bad turnout. I'll have to wire around this one too. Working on a structure also to break up the monotany of track laying.
It is still not spring here.