Good morning to all from the very warm desert. We've been above 110 degrees for the last few days- it's supposed to cool down to about 102 today. Summer is wildfire season here and there was one in my area yesterday. It spread to near the BNSF track that comes into Phoenix from northern Arizona. The railroad sent out some equipment to help fight the fire near the tracks.

Quote from: Jerry on June 30, 2025, 06:49:09 PMJeff what a wonderful job you did on those angle pieces.  Fact is the whole thing is looking terrific.

Jerry

Hello Jerry, sometimes the little details stand out more than anything else. I had a lot of fun with this little build and am very happy with how it turned out.

Quote from: Rick on July 01, 2025, 06:51:30 AMJeff, that looks excellent!

Hello Rick, thank you very much

Quote from: GeorgeD on July 01, 2025, 08:34:34 AMGood looking bridge, Jeff.

George

Hello George, I appreciate the encouragement

Quote from: elwoodblues on July 01, 2025, 08:37:05 AMGret work on the bridge Jeff.

Hello Ron, thanks for looking in and for the kind words.

Hello Philip, sorry for the late reply. I looked up the kit that you mentioned, it's a nice looking structure. Did you build that kit ?

Continuing on...

One of the railings has been glued on. My bridge deck is 11 scale feet wide. I set the railing 2 scale feet in from the edge to give me room for a set of braces for each post.



I cut some of the 1/16 strip wood that I used for the posts to 3/8 inch long pieces and then used my chopper to cut a 45 degree end. Then I glued them in place using my tweezers to help. You can see the difference in this picture, one side has the braces and the other does not.



The braces were a little like rafter tails. Small pieces that are difficult to place correctly, but they look good when done so they are worth the effort.



With both railings and the braces glued in place I still have 7 scale feet in width on the bridge between the railings. I think that it looks alright.
Here I've used my trusty A&I solution to age and weather the wood.



That's it for now.

Hello Dave, I've been watching and learning as you go through your process on this build. It's going to look great when you're done. I just hope that all of the details will be visible when you are finished.

Hello Tom, I've been following along. Now you're getting to the fun part. Great job.

Quote from: GeorgeD on June 28, 2025, 10:20:51 AMLooks good, Jeff.  You may not have a prototype, but it looks like a realistic bridge to me.

George

Hello George, thanks for looking in and for the kind words

Quote from: friscomike on June 28, 2025, 11:41:15 AMHowdy Jeff, you make the build look so easy.  Excellent work with the design and construction.  It looks like it will hold more than a few people!  Have fun, mike

Hello Mike, if you spend a little time on planning and design it helps make the construction process go a little easier. I learned that in a lifetime of real work and it applies to our hobby as well

Quote from: deemery on June 28, 2025, 12:19:57 PMThose railings will look fantastic, and really finish off the bridge!

dave

Hello Dave, railings on a bridge are like exterior stairs on a building, they provide a nice looking finishing touch and are always worth the effort.

Quote from: Philip on June 28, 2025, 03:36:58 PMSo long ago I don't remember. Nice work on the rails!

Hello Philip, thank you for the interest and the feedback, it always helps that someone is taking the time to comment

Quote from: ACL1504 on June 29, 2025, 08:19:27 AMWell  done Jeff.

Tom

Hello Tom, thank you as always

Quote from: Pennman on June 29, 2025, 09:27:07 AMNice work Jeff. Plans are always handy, and help making changes as you go.

Rich

Hello Rich, we all know that a good set of instructions make the difference when building a kit. I try to spend some time, when doing a scratch build, to help myself out with a good scale drawing.

Quote from: Jerry on June 29, 2025, 09:43:10 AMBeautiful work Jeff.

Jerry

Hello Jerry, thank you for the nice comment

Moving on to the railings for the bridge...

I laid out the railing post positions on my drawing. I used 1/16 square strip wood for the posts. I cut them longer than needed so that I would have some wood to tape down onto the drawing.
Here I'm trying out some 2x4 strip wood for the rails.



The rails have been glued to the posts and to each other with a little dab of glue on the ends.



This method allows me to do all of the fiddly work on a flat surface.



Here I've used my chisel blade to start to trim the tops of the posts



And here the bottom of the posts have been trimmed along the top of the yellow highlighted bridge profile on my drawing. This gives me posts with the correct angle cut when gluing to the bridge surface.



That's it for now, more later.

Hello Jerry, you did a great job on your dock. Can't wait to see the finished scene.

Hello Philip, I did finish the rafter tails and it was with a rake cut.

Hello Curt, thanks for the kind words, I had a lot of fun with that little build.

Hello Philip, I hope that you landed in some water when you rode your bike off of that bridge. Guardrails are coming for mine.

Hello Mike, oustanding job !

The central section is done and I'm using it to make sure that the support beams line up with the ones on the end section. You can see the pieces for the other end section just above the paper.



The three sections are done and I have them in position on the template. Next I will glue some more 1/8 square pieces in the spaces between the support beams of the sections.
 I have no idea if this design is in any way prototypical. All I know is that I didn't want any support piers under the bridge in the creek.
I glued two sets of "ties" between the central section and each end section and then two sets of longer ones between the two end sections.
This method gave me a nice solid bridge structure.



Here's a look at the underside of the bridge after all the glue dried.



And here's a look at the top of the bridge at this point. Next up, the railings.



That's it for now, more later.

Quote from: friscomike on June 25, 2025, 09:01:48 PMHowdy Jeff,

I like the paper template technique for laying out the creek bed and developing the bridge. The design looks terrific.  Following along...

Have fun,
mike

Hello Mike, the paper template helps me to visualize the bridge and I am having fun.

Quote from: ACL1504 on June 26, 2025, 12:26:22 PMJeff,

Looks good at this point. Anxious to see this all come together.

Tom

Hello Tom, thanks for looking in

Quote from: Jerry on June 26, 2025, 02:46:13 PMJeff nice start.  I like the way you drew up the plans for it.

Jerry

Hello Jerry, I always do scale drawings for my scratch builds. They give me a blueprint for the build.

Quote from: Rick on June 26, 2025, 04:41:47 PMJeff, this will be an interesting project to follow.
Good start.

Hello Rick, thanks for taking the time to check out my little build. Sometimes, for me, the small builds are the most interesting ones.

The main support beams for the bridge will be 1/8 square strip wood. I laid some pieces on the drawing to try to get an idea of angles for the bridge.



The yellow highlighted lines are the side profile for the bridge. The idea is starting to take shape.



I cut some of the 1/8 strip wood. This shows the shape of the three sections. The middle flat section has square cut edges, but both side sections have angled cuts at both ends.



Here I've started building the flat central section. As you can see it will have five support beams going lengthwise. The spacing between the beams is the width of the 1/8 square strip wood. I'll explain why in a bit.



I'm using 2x12 strip wood for the platform boards. I used full strength wood glue to attach the boards to the beams. I used my #11 blade to distress the ends of the boards and also the sides in some locations.



That's it for now, more later.