Has anyone taken a Hellgate bridge apart?

Whenever I have a tough one like that, I call our good friend Locolawyer.

It looks too good to refinish.

I have taken apart and repainted a Hellgate Bridge.

Basically broke it down into three sections: tower ends and middle span. Towers are held in place by screws. Span will break easily into bottom and top but I wouldn't try to separate the curved truss sections. I did not try to open tabs to break apart the towers.

Just stripped, primed and painted with it together. Worked out fine.

One option is to leave the overpaint (depending upon how well it is stuck to the original paint), sand it down well then coat with a quality primer to seal. Then topcoat.

I just want to take the towers off to seperate them for the paint but the paint that someone put on over the original has to go.Ther is a little surface rust on top of the towers you can't see in the pics.

What will the new color scheme be?    Any thoughts on doing a custom paint job.  Just my opinion, but I would think about doing it like the original.

Good luck on your project!

Paul

Is this original paint? It looks as if it could be a late prewar bridge, with silver trusses, and light cream towers.

Honestly, I would not touch it, with the exception of maybe the top of the bridge trusses.

If it came to you cheap enough, I'd turn it for a small profit and buy either an original or repro that suited you, condition wise. It looks too nice to repaint, if it's original paint, and  I hate to see an original example in decent condition redone. Heck, there are Hellgate bridges for sale all the time on ebay.

If it has been poorly redone in the past, I think that you can only improve its condition. After all, it is your bridge, and, only my opinion.

Chris,

I would be very careful of what media you use in taking the paint off. Original tinplate metal can be painfully thin in spots. I have a Lionel engine whose body I almost blasted a hole through.

Without looking at your prior posts to see if you've done this before I would suggest being ready to clean the media off and priming the bridge soon after blasting. Just make sure the area you're priming in is well ventilated and well heated this time of year.

Good luck!

Jim

Not original paint. Whoever did it before painted the silver and towers. If you look underneath you can see the original green and cream on the towers. The original name plates have been painted over as well.

Here are pics of my bridge before and after.

I stripped it chemically. Derusted it with Evap-o-rust. Lightly bead blasted some rough spots and put POR-15 on those areas. Then SEM self etching primer overall.

BTW: The cream paint on the towers is definitely lead based so keep that in mind.

Paint is custom mixed. I mixed up the green to get a pretty good match to the original. I took a tower top to an auto paint store and they put a computer reader on the original paint on the underside and mixed up the cream color. Tera cotta base is Hobby Horse spray. Has a nice aged tone so overall it looks like aged original paint.

Also polished then clear coated all the brass parts.

Very happy with it. Since my STDG floor layout is New York City themed this was a must have piece for me.

WOW. That came out beautiful! How much of it did you disassemble?

Thanks.

Broke it into the two towers (separated tops), main bridge section with brass parts removed and the bottom. Worked with it that way. Not real easy to get into some areas but got 'er done.