Arch Bridge Construction

sdrees · August 09, 2018, 11:48:09 AM

I have started construction of an Arch Truss Bridge for my layout. I have an area on the layout that will require three bridges to cross a canyon and river. The picture below shows this area and the arch bridge will be located in postion 1. It will be 200 ft long.

My inspirations for the bridge are the Vance Creek Bridge in the State of Washington that was built for the Simpson Lumber to open up the Olympic Peninsula to logging. It was built in 1928. John Allen's, Squaw Bottom Bridge is the other one that influenced me.

So I used the 3rd Planit software to draw a construction plan and to provide templates for ease of construction.

So for its construction, I used the Central Valley laced girders for the vertical members, for the horizontal chords, I ripped the laced girders on a saww attachment I have for my unimat, the glued the halves together, and for the diagonals, I built them up from 1/16" styrene angles and strips of styrene as show on the right of the picture below.

The remaing pictures are the steps I did to construct the bents.

ACL1504 · August 09, 2018, 12:11:43 PM

Steve,

Wonderful start and of course I'll be following along. This will be a great eye catcher on the layout. Along with all the other fantastic models.

Tom

PRR Modeler · August 09, 2018, 12:13:25 PM

Very cool. I'll be following.

GPdemayo · August 09, 2018, 01:54:08 PM

Can't wait to see this one come to life Steve.....I'll be watching.

S&S RR · August 09, 2018, 02:10:02 PM

Very cool! The prototype is beautiful. I will be following along.

EricQuebec · August 09, 2018, 05:24:11 PM

Very nice job. can't wait to see it finish
Eric

Janbouli · August 10, 2018, 03:23:08 AM

What a great project , that's a beautiful prototype.

sdrees · August 10, 2018, 01:51:36 PM

Thanks for stopping in. I can't wait to see how it turns out also. Not quite sure how to assemble to different built up components yet, like the bents to the arch, but I have an idea that I keep churning in my mind. So we shall see. I remember the bridge on John Allen's layout from my visits when I was in high school and college with our local model railroad club.

Just hope I can do justice to this project and be as nice looking as the prototype since this is different type of construction for me.

tom.boyd.125 · August 11, 2018, 01:44:57 AM

Steve,
Never knew John Allen's bridge had a prototype. This will really be an eye catcher !
What are you using for the rivets ?
Tommy

sdrees · August 11, 2018, 01:18:24 PM

Hi Tom,

Uh Uh Uh what am I going to do for rivets?. Maybe I might use the Micro Mark raised rivet decals. I did experiment with them on one bent and they look pretty good. What a pain in the you know what though.

I don't know whether the Vance Creek Bridge was the prototype for John Allen's bridge.

vinceg · August 11, 2018, 01:52:46 PM

Quote from: sdrees on August 11, 2018, 01:18:24 PM
Hi Tom,

Uh Uh Uh what am I going to do for rivets?. Maybe I might use the Micro Mark raised rivet decals. I did experiment with them on one bent and they look pretty good. What a pain in the you know what though.

I don't know whether the Vance Creek Bridge was the prototype for John Allen's bridge.

How about the rivet tool like the Rivet-R? That's what I'm using for nail holes now instead of a pound wheel but it is normally used by the military and aircraft modeling guys for pushing rivets pockets into thin sheet materials.

sdrees · August 11, 2018, 03:15:45 PM

Thanks Vince for the idea. I will check it out.

vinceg · August 11, 2018, 06:37:32 PM

Quote from: vinceg on August 11, 2018, 01:52:46 PM
Quote from: sdrees on August 11, 2018, 01:18:24 PM
Hi Tom,

Uh Uh Uh what am I going to do for rivets?. Maybe I might use the Micro Mark raised rivet decals. I did experiment with them on one bent and they look pretty good. What a pain in the you know what though.

I don't know whether the Vance Creek Bridge was the prototype for John Allen's bridge.

How about the rivet tool like the Rivet-R? That's what I'm using for nail holes now instead of a pound wheel but it is normally used by the military and aircraft modeling guys for pushing rivets pockets into thin sheet materials.

I'm sure you all knew this, but that should have been pounce wheel. I would like to blame auto spelling correction, but I can't. Wait....yes, I can!

postalkarl · August 12, 2018, 09:41:07 AM

Hi Steve:

Look like you are off to a good start. Will be following along. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Karl

sdrees · August 12, 2018, 01:17:56 PM

Hi Karl,

thanks for stopping by Karl, I can't wait to see how it is going to turn out also.