Truss Bridges With Nothing To Cross

Notching out a small section of bench work for a creek or gully comes to mind, but you could cut it straight and make it a flood-control channel.

Is that the famous ATSF "Beep" up in Barstow you're standing on?

HEY MATT,

Yep, that's the BEEP, at the Western America Railroad Museum in Barstow, 37 miles from our home in Apple Valley.

The Museum Curator said that was Baldwin's version of the EMD GP switchers.

While there, 2 long BNSF freight trains rumbled by.  My wife counted 111 cars in one.

Cheers, and thanks for the tip, but if I cut through that 1/2" roadbed, there would be a 44-1/2" drop to the floor...that would be 178-scale feet!

(I have a long 2% gradient, taking my layout up to a maximum height of 47-1/2 inches, which would be 190 scale feet.)

BAD ORDER 

I've been meaning to visit that museum since I'm "down the hill" from Barstow. The Beep is significant as it was a follow-on to the very successful CF7 program at Cleburne, but it wasn't cost effective. Glad 1460 was preserved. I hadn't heard anything about its fate after the announcement that it was being retired. That would be an interesting build.

When you cut the notch, just fill it with a grid made from cardboard strips, then cover the strips with paper towels soaked in a joint compound mix the consistency of pancake batter. It'll harden up into a nice riverbed. Paint it with an earth-tone latex paint and sprinkle dirt onto that and you have your gully/dry riverbed. Add a couple of tufts of green and you're done.

I won't do it, Matt!

It's just too much trouble for someone who's satisfied with a pure, ultra-simple layout!

If I did that, then I'd be compelled to go whole-hog and change everything from my beloved Desert Wilderness scheme into something unnecessarily complex and "busy", detracting from my original layout philosophy of "Minimum is Best".

You know...there ARE people like me!

I do appreciate your tips, however...

BAD ORDER HAL

Believe me, I understand. We added a bridge to the club layout years ago. Took a full day of having the layout down to cut it in and repair the track (which we later re-laid for better aesthetics. Years later, we're finally putting a riverbed underneath it. Go figure. I'm still working on the design of the waterfall that has to go behind it.

You could always just put the bridge on the flat surface and paint a stream or river that appears to flow underneath.

I have to admit though I like Matt's idea.  You already have a grade.  Just take a small area of that grade out and put the bridge in it's place.  Does not even have to be a water bridge.

HEY MATT & RON,

Here's the deal: 

My layout is not built on traditional benchwork in the Lynn Westcott manner!

I have 2 structures for supporting my return loops, built on 2x4 framework, and using 3/8" hex bolts for joining the lumber and 3/8" lag bolts to fasten it to the game room wall studs.  There are no nails or screws anywhere on my supporting structures.

The remainder of the line that goes aound the game room walls is supported on 12" x 1/2" boards, supported on heavy wall brackets fastened to studs.  (See picture)

The picture shows the train entering the 2% grade, which is supported by a 10 foot long 2x4 header lag-bolted to the wall studs, with brackets supporting the 12" width of the roadbed.  The loco is already 46" above the floor.

If I cut a section out of the grade, there would be a 45" to 46" drop to the floor, spanning a "creek" on the carpet that would be only 12" long!

Now you can see that my layout was built with an entirely different purpose; one that does not lend itself to "benchwork", due to my requirement of providing room for the 9'x 4-1/2' Tournament-size Billiard Table, which was the sole reason I had the 500 sq. ft. Game Room built!

The Billiard Table is the primary feature of the Game Room...the Railroad Layout is secondary!

Cheers,

BAD ORDER HAL

Your photos aren't showing for me. I recalled when you were having a derailment problem. I looked at those photos in a 9/13 post.

Illusion is what is needed. It seems arch-under bridges work better in canyons. (Found more southwest and Cali photos of them anyway) Place one under the benchwork on a narrow section of the wall hanging and paint or backdrop a photo of the canyon and rock supports on the wall. Attach the bridge to the wall . Like this  I guess it would work for a trestle bridge. The arch-under seems more elegant-like 1/3 of a billiards rack. 

MOONMAN,

What I have is an around-the-room shelf railroad, as shown.  The shelf is one foot wide, and is four feet above the floor.

I have no benchwork.

If I do want a truss bridge, I'll buy one, place it on the shelf, and pretend it's crossing the Misssissippi.

BAD ORDER

Hey Bad Order Hal, How'd you get your name?

You could cross the room with a draw bridge.  Your billiards table looks kind of like a lake. 

HEY APPLE, etc,

"Bad Order" is a long-time Railroaders' term meaning a piece of rolling stock that has a mechanical defect, like a hot journal box or broken brake beam, and must be cut out of the consist for repairs.

I will not interfere with my billiard table or the space surrounding it.

I use the table, which is the reason the room addition was built.

BAD ORDER

HERE'S THE BEST BRIDGE IDEA I'VE SEEN YET:

It's a plastic kit sold by Bachmann, and it doesn't need to cross anything...it just sits on the layout, as pictured.  (It has to be a 2-rail double-track type.)

BAD ORDER HAL

Sounds like you really want to do it... So do it.  You are the only one who needs to like it.  It should not matter what anyone else thinks.

Have Fun with it!

Ron

Ok, so you did away with the table turnaround areas.

Atlas sells a two track 2-rail truss bridge. They all will just sit under the track.

I have 2 of the postwar Lionel metal ones with rust side - by - side just sitting there. Well, I reverse painted some vinyl sheet for water underneath of them.

In looking at your track base, if you want to use an Atlas 2-track truss bridge, you'll be fine. Just cut out a 40" section of the board and put cleats at the ends of the gap to support the ends of the bridge. It's very strong and doesn't flex under the heavy load of big steam engines. An added bonus is the sound of a train crossing it is actually pretty realistic.

That said, the Plasticville bridge is styrene and it should be a relatively easy matter to kit-bash it into a two-track bridge.

HEY MATT...that sounds good to me!

Do the Atlas truss bridges bridge include the 40" of double 2-rail track?

I cut the 12" boards by having them ripped into 8-foot-long sections from 4' x 8' sheets of OSB underlayment.

BAD ORDER

HEY MOONMAN,

No, I did not do away with my turnaround areas...I fact, I enlarged one of them, as you can see from the track plan I posted yesterday.

As I stated in yesterday's reply to you, I have an around-the-room shelf-type railroad, with 12" wide straight sections and curved sections in the four corners.

You can't put a bridge on curved track, and it would be ludicrous to make a creek or canyon under a 1-foot wide straight section, as this would make the creek or canyon only 1 foot or 48 scale feet long!

I never heard of a creek or canyon only 48 feet long!

Here's a shot of the width of my roadbed...that's the carpet 4 feet below.

BAD ORDER  (That ATLAS double-track 2-rail Pratt Truss Bridge looks like the one I'll order...thanks, MOONMAN!)

HEY RON.....

You mean if I put a Truss Bridge on my layout that crosses nothing, I'll still be allowed to stay on the Forum?

BAR ORDER

They have the track rails included. Make sure you get the 2-rail bridge. The track spacing is 4.5" and the bridge does require assembly. Under the track rails are two imbedded steel stringers (within the modeled stringers) which gives the bridge its strength. We run heavy articulated steam through our bridges all the time and they don't even flinch. The ends of the bridge need to be supported, hence the need for a cleat under the base. We just mounted a 1x1 cleat on the 2x4 framing. In your situation, you can hang a cleat underneath the shelf, or better still, use extra wide shelf brackets at the shelf/bridge interface.

I can't recall the exact thickness of the bridge, but some minor adjustment in the approach tracks might be involved which isn't a big deal.

There's got to be a Sarah Palin joke in here somewhere.

HEY  ARTHUR,

The only thing I don't like about Sarah Palin is that she shoots Wolves from airplanes, and I love Wolves!

BAD ORDER HAL

Crazy thought......can you elevate the leads just slightly to the bridge and have the bridge span over a marsh/bog like one might find at the base of a lake.....I have walked over girder plate bridges just a couple feet above marshy/ swampy terrain.....the RR could not fill in as it was a natural habitat.....

That's an excellent idea and requires less work.

HEY NEPA,

Nope...won't do that!

My terrain is dry, dry, dry High Desert, with rainfall almost immeasurable.

A swamp, marsh, or bog would be completely out of place up here!

Our habitat is home to Scorpions, Mojave Greens, Kangaroo Rats, and Desert Tortoises, all of which get their moisture from succulent desert plants.

Our rivers and creeks are bone dry the year round, except for washes that drain away flash floods during heavy rains in the nearby mountains.

They quickly handle the runoff, then become dry, dry, dry right afterwards.

(Just talking about our climate makes me thirsty!)

BAD ORDER

Elevate the leads to and from the bridge just slightly and use the truss to cover a shallow dry basin as shown in the attached images of this RR bridge crossing a dry basin in the desert........not much clearance needed under this one

I see, NEPA, but I still won't do it.

I want my trackage to go straight through the span with the desert floor supporting the tracks and with no grade changes at all.

I've chosen my Truss and I've decided how to install it, thanks to some good tips from some of you. 

As it is written, so shall it be done!

BAD ORDER  (There's where I plan to place the Bridge...at the beginning of the 2% grade along the game room wall, where the train is resting.)

If you could print out a photo of a dry creek bed and slide it under the bridge it may look convincing enough to make you happy.  When I was a kid we had a piece of blue construction paper under a short Lionel truss bridge. 

Nathan

Nathan and others,

I have locked myself out of this Topic, as I now know what I'm going to do, and no further discussion is necessary!

Thanks for the discussion, now shall we peruse Early Rennaisance Sketching?

BAD ORDER HAL