I have seen many beautiful truss bridges of all kinds in this forum. Purchasing one, or a kit for one, seems to start at about $200 and go up from there. I'm not afraid of scratch building one but would that still cost as much? Any ideas would be appreciated.
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I think Rockstars1989 built his. Looked really good to me.
Dimensions?
I have over 45' of elevated track so I could use any dimensions.
Menards has Truss Bridges. Single and Double track. Maybe you can buy a couple and make them longer if needed.
Kitbasher posted:I have seen many beautiful truss bridges of all kinds in this forum. Purchasing one, or a kit for one, seems to start at about $200 and go up from there. I'm not afraid of scratch building one but would that still cost as much? Any ideas would be appreciated.
I don't know where you live but the train store in downtown Lancaster, PA has a bunch of larger truss bridges on sale. I bought one originally designed for G scale operation and but a double line over it. It is about 30's long. Price - $60.00. Mine is made of aluminum and sits on my layout unpainted.
I have been thinking of getting the TWTrainworx Truss unbranded bridge kit. According to the spec sheet it is 32" long. The kit sells for $98.
http://twtrainworx.com/B52.html
That's a good looking bridge, Andy. Thanks
Micheal, do you mean the Strasburg Train Shop in Strasburg? I can't find one in downtown Lancaster.
I have both the TWTrainWorks and the Menards truss bridges on my layout. Both excellent. Both recommended.
Join the bridges together (as suggested above) and make your truss "bridge" as long as you want.
Good luck.
I so wish Train Cat Sales would do o Scale kits. Ohh those are sweet! You know Vince at the A&O could do a special kit with all the incredible parts he’s developing for the A&O 2.0.
Good luck on your searching
rthomps posted:I have both the TWTrainWorks and the Menards truss bridges on my layout. Both excellent. Both recommended.
Join the bridges together (as suggested above) and make your truss "bridge" as long as you want.
Good luck.
Do you have pictures of the TWTrainworx on your layout or built? Was it difficult to build? The video makes their bridges look fairly uncomplicated. Thanks!
American Scale models has new ones in stock right now. Expensive, but beautiful.
SANTIAGOP23 posted:American Scale models has new ones in stock right now. Expensive, but beautiful.
Dang Santiago I forgot about Bill’s doh.. I’m sorry Bill. 
OMI Pratt pin connected truss and a custom built through plate deck from Japan on my layout.
roll_the_dice posted:rthomps posted:I have both the TWTrainWorks and the Menards truss bridges on my layout. Both excellent. Both recommended.
Join the bridges together (as suggested above) and make your truss "bridge" as long as you want.
Good luck.
Do you have pictures of the TWTrainworx on your layout or built? Was it difficult to build? The video makes their bridges look fairly uncomplicated. Thanks!
Yes. They are relatively easy to build. You can make their bridges as simple or as complicated as you like. This one is on my in-progress layout build (hence construction equipment all around). I really like their products. 
rthomps posted:roll_the_dice posted:rthomps posted:I have both the TWTrainWorks and the Menards truss bridges on my layout. Both excellent. Both recommended.
Join the bridges together (as suggested above) and make your truss "bridge" as long as you want.
Good luck.
Do you have pictures of the TWTrainworx on your layout or built? Was it difficult to build? The video makes their bridges look fairly uncomplicated. Thanks!
Yes. They are relatively easy to build. You can make their bridges as simple or as complicated as you like. This one is on my in-progress layout build (hence construction equipment all around). I really like their products.
Thank you sir! I put the TWTrainworx Truss bridge on my birthday wishlist to my wife...so if I don't get it for my Bday, then I will still get it.
If you car to mess around a bit and are not squeamish, you could go with the Plastruct Truss bridge kit. They're not know for their kits being a pile of uncut shapes and some rudimentary instructions. That being said, they build a pretty nice and strong bridge with good representation of the real thing. I didn't use the bridge as a through truss since I had curves in the approaches, so I turned them upside down and used them as deck trusses. Since deck trusses are much narrower, I had enough material left over from two kits to produce and entire 3rd deck plate bridge and trussed pier supporting it. I did it "model airplane style" by pinning the pieces onto plans that I had redrawn in CorelDraw to 1:48. The Plastruct instructions are not in O'scale.
Instead of embossing rivets into the gusset plates I used rivet decals which worked pretty well. I would recommend it for those who don't want to mess with embossing.
Bridge shoes are from Kiel Line and the deck railings are from Bowser.
Track on bridges is special Ross bridge rail which has the guard rails already installed. Side walkways were constructed of balsa wood planks. I wouldn't do it this way again since it's quite fragile. I'd go with basswood (coffee stirrers?). As in some prototype practices, bridge shoes are only on one end.
They've been in operation now for 3 years are working great. I've had no trouble with them at all. Building this first Plastruct kit gave me the confidence to build other trussed structures including the material handling equipment on the distillery and Plastruct's refinery kit, which was soooo much harder than the bridges. I would not have wanted to tackle the refinery first.
Thanks Trainmain. Your bridges and layout look great. I'll have to consider that.
Atlas double pratt truss bridge. I built the bench work to the bridge.
Nice work, Mike.
Dear Mike CT
I like the dead bolt on the door, smart move.
Erik C Lindgren posted:SANTIAGOP23 posted:American Scale models has new ones in stock right now. Expensive, but beautiful.
Dang Santiago I forgot about Bill’s doh.. I’m sorry Bill.
That is a really nice looking bridge! Unfortunately, its cost exceeds the total annual revenue of my railroad.
Sean
I started this message topic and it has now come full circle. This forum got me in touch with Joe Mezyk when I was looking for a truss bridge for my layout. Joe offered an Atlas #7920 Pratt Truss bridge to me and I bought it from him. I promised I would post photos when I was done with it. I spent weeks practicing different weathering techniques in preparation for the project. I just finished it and I like how it turned out. Thanks Joe! And thanks to Rattler21 for introducing me to Joe.
Looks fantastic...I LOVE the weathering you did! Any tips or tricks you picked up to achieve that affect?
I am with Andy. That looks amazing! Very realistic. Please feel free to share how you went about doing that.
The weathering was many steps.
Simple as that!
Paul
lovely job! I wonder in real life whether that bridge could actually hold up a Big Boy?
Well, you've got a point there!
Probably the best bridge weathering job I have ever seen. Thanks for including the details on all the weathering steps, you're right that's a bunch of steps, but the results are outstanding.
Thanks a lot Chris. I have to thank a guy by the name of Don Smith, who is MUCH better at this than I am, for giving me some of these technique tips. Check out his work here - http://www.industrialmodels.net/
Kitbasher:
If you are looking for plastic or metal your best bet is to buy assembled from one of the manufacturers.
If you are looking for wood you can purchase kits from various manufactures or I can quote you a price for an assembled bridge - https://modelstructuresinc.com...-bridges-and-decking
Joe
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