Clearwater Valley Railway Co.

[PRR Modeler]

Great track work Ron.

[elwoodblues]

Thanks for the encouragement Larry, Gerry Rick and Curt, it is very much appreciated.

Time for a small update. . . . . .

The Track Gang Finishes Work

Finally found time to finish laying the track for the staging yard.



The engine storage tracks completed.


Next up is building the trestle so that the staging yard can be connected to the main layout.

Thanks for looking in.

[deemery]

Does 'complete' include a post-installation electrical check-out?  Looks great!

dave

[Rick]

Ron, congratulations on finishing the track work.
I look forward to your bridge build.

[PRR Modeler]

Congratulations Ron. You've hit a milestone on your layout.

[Jerry]

Excellent work Ron.  When is the bridge going to be ready??? 

Jerry

[kyle creel]

Now we're cookin' Ron     - absolutely fantastic trackage.."Bring on da bridge; bring on da bridge!!"    
I love it................................

KYLE CREEL
G&D Ry Co.

[GPdemayo]

Good looking curved switches Ron.....

[Larry C]

Great track work. Da bridge will be the "crown jewel".

[friscomike]

Howdy Ron, 

That's some exceptional turnout work. Congrats on staging completion. 

Trestle on and have fun,
mike

[Philip]

Grand work!

[elwoodblues]

Thanks for the comments Dave, Rick, Curt, Jerry, Kyle, Greg, Larry, Mike and Philip.

The track laying process was real relaxing, now it is on to the next step.

[elwoodblues]

Some progress was made yesterday so it's time for another update......

Bridge Shoes Anyone?

If you look and any steal constructed bridges you will notice that there are bridge shoes between the bridge and the support pier.  Bridge shoes are critical as they allow for the expansion and contraction of the bridge due to temperature differences.  This prevents the bridge from buckling and/or damaging the bridge supports.  On end of the bridge is fixed while the other end moves freely.

I figured if I'm going to do it right I better add the bridge shoes.  

First up was to get the bridge shoes and I only had N scale one which would be way too small for my bridge, so an internet search showed that Walthers made a set that would work, but my local supplier didn't have any and getting them elsewhere would be costly and I would have to wait for them so I decided to make my own.  I found plans online but I also found 3d printing files (stl) for them online st Thingiverse.



The files were for a HO bridge but looking at the dimension in the slicer software they would scale out to 2' high which seemed a little to tall for me  so I printed them out at 12" high and 18" high.  While the 12" high ones looked good they seemed too small under the bridge while the 18" high ones looker right.

As a side note, because these pieces were small and delicate I printed them using my resin printer.  They were printed using Anycubic water wash resin, which is a lot less hassle that using resin that used isopropyl alcohol for washing and clean up.




I painted the bridge shoes black grey (Vallejo 70.862)  I don't use black is it is to stark and never looks right as the colour is overpowering.




The shoes glued to the underside of the bridge.




A close-up of the installed bridge shoe.

Next up is figuring out the height of the bridge pier.

Thanks for looking in.

[PRR Modeler]

That looks very good Ron.

[Larry C]

Ron nice shoes; betcha don't hear that often. I'm amazed at what you guys can do with 3D printers.