A man bridge over a creek

[nycjeff]

The corner area diorama that I am planning for my layout will have a small creek running through it. I decided that a man bridge over the creek would be a nice detail to add for the overall look of the diorama. The diorama will have structures on both sides of the creek and the little people needed a way to get from one area to the other, so...

Here's a look at the overall area with a paper template pinned to it for the future creek bed. The tan surface is a sheet of homosote. The homosote has been cut to fit the space available space for the diorama. The edges have been shaped to slope down to the existing finished areas next to it. I'll go into more detail about this when I start the diorama build thread.



The piece of white cardboard shows the location of the man bridge.



Here's a full size drawing of the footprint of the man bridge. It's about an inch and a half wide by six inches long.



Here's another drawing. This time it's an elevation drawing of the bridge.



Here I'm starting to fill out the elevation drawing which will give me a template for the bridge construction. I decided that the bridge will have three sections. A flat central area with two angled side sections.



To this point, everything is just an idea in my head. These pictures show my process for getting from the idea stage to an actual thing.

[nycjeff]

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.

[friscomike]

Howdy 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

[ACL1504]

Jeff,

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

Tom

[Jerry]

Jeff nice start.  I like the way you drew up the plans for it.

Jerry

[Rick]

Jeff, this will be an interesting project to follow.
Good start.

[nycjeff]

Howdy 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.

Jeff,

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

Tom

Hello Tom, thanks for looking in

Jeff 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.

Jeff, 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.

[nycjeff]

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.

[Philip]

Neat project! I rode a bicycle off one of those as a young kid. A smaller version over a stream with no guardrails.

[nycjeff]

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

[nycjeff]

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.

[GeorgeD]

Looks good, Jeff.  You may not have a prototype, but it looks like a realistic bridge to me.

George

[friscomike]

Howdy 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

[deemery]

Those railings will look fantastic, and really finish off the bridge!

dave

[Philip]

So long ago I don't remember. Nice work on the rails!