Girder Bridge "Sides"

Woodland Scenics was selling some, but I don't recall the size.

Scenic Express sells them.  They are $20. per piece and only come in grey.  They usually have a good supply at each York.  They are fexible too!

Paul Edgar

Yes, they are a standard Scenic Express item.  Here is a link.

http://www.sceneryexpress.com/...fo.asp?number=RR0010

Scenic express,24" long, bought 2 last week at LHS.  Great product. plan to make a curved girder bridge, even though none exist on real railroads.

I believe that there are quite a few curved girder bridges around. Ann Arbor bridge is a good example.  http://www.historicbridges.org...nnarbor/PICT3628.JPG

As mentioned Scenic Express sells them 26.5" long, if you buy 5 the price is $17.00 each.  Used some on the Nj hi railers layout a few years back before I moved to Pa., good product.

Jack 

Nicole,

Thank you for the information and beautiful photograph.

Ralph-RJL

Great photo, Nicole.

Just for the record though, notice that while the bridge supports curved track, the girders themselves are not curved. The span is made up of a series of straight girders supported at the ends by abutments.

Many highway bridges have curved girders, but I don't know of any RR bridges built that way, as Audi said. If there are some (and I'm sure someone will show me one to prove I'm wrong ) they would have been built fairly recently.

Jim

They ones pictured are made by Atlas and available through Scenic Express.  They bend but are fragile when reacing a certain poit and will crack.  Another problem we had with them is that they warp in the heat.  We had over 200 feet of them and replace them all because of that.  The Silk City product is stronger, just as flexible, and better looking.

You could try and build your own with drywall shims.  They bend and take paint easly.  They are 3 feet long and 1 1/2 inches wide. I do wish I would have put more ribbs into it as with some more detail.

Thanks for all the information...it is great!

I am really interested in the Silk City version.  Please contact me on the forum or via email (llineba@surewest.net) to let me know what I can do to obtain a "sample."

I may have to put in something temporary pending arrival of the Silk City version...or until I can get that much cash.

I agree the Woodland Scenics version does warp...for no reason...and as you see in the photo...the paint is falling off.  I figured I did not store them properly.

Let me hear from you guys at Silk City, please.

You may also want to consider the all new Ribbed Girder bridges and ribbed girder side rails available from bridgeboss. Will post a photo shortly.

tks.

jim r from bridgeboss

I just sent you an email

Scenic Express has them. http://www.sceneryexpress.com/...fo.asp?number=RR0010

It's always good to buy from a forum sponsor.

Scott Smith

As a great modeler I know told me, "there's a prototype for just about anything you might see on a model railroad."  There are actually two short curved girder bridges up in Northern Oregon (if I recall correctly) feeding a wye junction. From a load standpoint, I could see why it wouldn't be logical to make them curved for anything other than a short distance and broad radius. Here are aerials of the pair of bridges I saw on a trip to Vancouver (by train, of course)

Here's what they looked like at track level out the roomette window. Note that there's a support in the middle of the roadway.

Hi SD60M,You didn't ask for any of this, but just to be helpful, provided you're interested in weathered features, here are a few photos of a short girder bridge I spied while traveling along Rt.11 in Upstate NY. The weathering was so interesting, I got out of my car, propped up the camera tripod, and took these photos. I thought you might like to see this...

Hoping you may find these useful,

Frank

Looks familiar:

Pete

Be aware that the Scenic Express versions have absolutely no detail on the opposite side. By glue them back to back you will now have full detail but you also double the cost.

AGRHmatt, Thanks for the info on the curved girder bridge, Who knew? Not me anyway,but now I have a prototypical bridge to model. Thanks, Fred

See the New Ribbed Girder bridges coming soon from Bridgeboss.com. They will be available in lengths up to 60 inches both straight and in the unconventional curved style. The curved will be available in most all standard sizes, 031, 036, 042 etc etc. Also available will be seperate ribbed girder panels. All of these will be available in your choice of colors. See a few typical photos below.

thanks,

jim r from bridgeboss.com

Scenic express, 24" long, about 20$ a piece, paint up nice and easy to cut and glue. These are attached to 1/8"aluminum with double sided tape crossing a 5' span.

Good selection of answers for our bridgs, thanks for the ideas.

Matt,

Although it looks curved, if you hold a straight edge up to it, I think you'll see that it's actually made up with 5 straight girders. It's more apparent in the second photo. As Jim said, there are some highway girder bridges that are curved but these are fairly modern and not usually plate girder bridges. Nevertheless, I've yet to see a curved plate girder RR bridge.

We were on our way North on the Coast Starlight when I saw them (camera wasn't ready.) Up until that moment in 2007 I didn't think one of these existed (let alone two in the same place,) and no one I knew had ever seen one. I made sure to have the camera ready on the return trip. I had the location wrong, those bridges are South of Vancouver, Washington.

Those get the "go figure" award.

Dennis:

I figured the construction was segmented as there wouldn't be a practical/economical way to bend something like that, but the "curved" reference refers to having girders that are formed into a curve as opposed to several separate straight girder bridges formed into a segmented curve.

Dennis, those girders sure look curved to me, second photo looks distorted. The photo looks like a 'google earth' type photo which are not always the clearest photos. Fred

I've researched the subject. Curved I girders and box girders are modern designs. The first curved girder bridge designs appeared in Massachusetts in the 1980's. These are not plate girders.

There are no curved plate girder railroad bridges. They may appear to be curved but I assure you, they are short straight spans.

Greg do you have any other pics showing the ends?

Thanks Mike

Here's a film from 1898 showing a few actually curved plate girder members but they are very short. The majority of the members are actually short straight sections.

Mark

P.S. This clip came from a similar discussion the Brits were having:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/communi...e-for-eastwood-town/