This is my first post so be kind … Is it better to build and weather bridges and have them in place when you lay your track or should I get the track working perfectly and go back and add the bridges later? This is my first layout and I suffer from paralysis through analysis, I want to try to do the best possible job the first time. I know there will be mistakes and I will end up redoing some things, but really want to try to do it right. Thanks for your help.
Yes.
Many ways to skin a cat.
David B
I have done it both ways an my personal preference is to get the bridges in first. However doing this is not always possible and sometimes design changes affect things as well. It can be done both ways and care should be taken either way. Putting a bridge first means you have to take extra care not to damage it during the remainder of the build while as putting it in after means you have to take more time with installation.
Either way there is no wrong way, just pluses and minuses to both ways.
Just now I’m building a module. I have made the creek and then installed the bridge.Next time comes track.
Only with one treste I went the other way.
Wolfgang
Below are two pics of where I will chop out the spline and put in two of my bridges. I think if I waited until I got the bridges built I’d never get a train running. I would definitely do the bridges after as you will be making adjustments along the way.
This is going to be the stoney creek bridge. A high steel monster, three hundred feet up.
I am thinking of a heinz 57 here. To represent a widening of the gap over the years.
Brent
I establish the surroundings first, including the roadbed (spline last time, as did Brent above…) and laid the track loosely on the spline, but anchored a few inches past where the bridge abutments would be. Then, I removed the spline section and merely added ‘stuff’ under the bridge bents/pylons until it positively and securely supported the tracks at grade. Fasten it all in place with ground goop, sculptamold, plaster, or just clear-drying acrylic latex caulk…whatever seems to do the job, and then let it settle and set a bit. Try a train the next day to see if you pulled it off. The key is to maintian grade with what is on either side of the abutments.
-Crandell
Agreed, it can be done either way. It is much easier to know what bridge you are using when you design and build the benchwork. Some will incorporate a deep valley or ravine for the bridge/ trestle to cross. In cases as this the benchwork is modified to accomplish the lowered elevation. Some simple elevated track with short bridges and their abutments can usually be added later with little trouble. It is good to have the bridge on hand to use as a guide to do the surrounding scenery. and set the proper slopes and elevations.
Definitely track first. Get that in good running order, then the scenery (yes, that means bridges too) can be built. As has been said previously, adjustments to the track will inevitably have to be made somewhere or another. Welcome aboard and have fun!
Unless you’re doing something like a ballasted-deck girder bridge, generally the track going over a bridge is going to look different from regular track. It’s often not ballasted, the tie spacing will be different and there usually be guardrails inside of the running rails, to help in case of a derailment. So often you’re not going to be using the same track you use for your mainline. In some cases the rail and ties of the track will basically be part of the bridge - you could build the bridge and track at the workbench and then move the whole piece to the layout.
I have a fairly large HO layout, 29ft by 33ft, three decks. the construction has been completed for several years and the track and scenery also done. However, when I was building it, in many cases I ended up putting in a temp bridge so I could keep on laying track and get some scenery in. The layout is pretty much complete, has been for a few years, but I still have one spot I have never finished because I wasn’t sure what I was going to do there. So I have a piece of lattice over the river with track temporarily laid on it, and I have never put in the bridge even tho the secenery is done all around it. I do get comments.
Bob
Welcome to the forum!! You have some really great information here and it should help. For me I use the spline method and be absolutely sure I maintain grade. I will rough out the scenic forms and the last thing I do is remove the spline, insert the bridge, complete the trackwork and then test to be sure everything lines up and there are no problems. Once it’s in place then I will complete the scenery and blend everything in. One thing I won’t do is to paint or weather the bridge in place. I will do it on the workbench, be sure everything is set, and then place it. I tried it the other way once and, well let’s say, I made a bit of a mess, took the bridge out, repainted it and back in it went.
You can analyze it over and over but whatever works for you is the best way to do it.
Some bridges have track as an integral part of the bridge, so you really need to build them together. In any case, you’ll want to know the size and position of the bridge if you’re using special “bridge track” across the span.
I have a bridge across the “Moose Bay” inlet, a narrow body of water. Since Moose Bay was originally made of pink foam (impurities in the limestone laid down in the Late Cetaceous Era, I tell myself) it was a while before I actually got around to finishing the scenery beneath the bridge, but it was on a main line and I wanted to run trains. So, I basically installed the bridge temporarily, first with plain track supported on an old Atlas bridge pier, and then with the “real” bridge. I didn’t get around to using bridge track until the final installation, literally 4 years after I started running trains across the inlet.
First off welcome to the forum and don’t be discouraged form asking questions no matter how silly or trivial you think they are or what some of the wise crack answers may be. That being said I take the approach as a bridge is both a structure like a building and part of the track work. So generally speaking you would not go back and weather and detail a building after it’s been planted on our layout so why would a bridge be any different not would you build said bridge in place right on the layout it self, no you would build it at your work bench of course. So complete the model then plant it. for good.
I first build all of my bridges for the area which I’m working on or have planed for the entire layout. I have all but two of the bridges build for quite some time even before i started building the bench work. I have sort of tried to streamline my approach to layout building where rather then build track and then cut it out or put in a temporary bridge or take the one I will use and keep putting it in and taking it back out until everything is just so I now just treat it as another “model module” of the layout.
At the club we have a guy we refer to as the master bridge builder. When we decide on a scene it for the most part is something we’ve gotten the idea from by looking at pictures of the prototype or one similar. If it’s not going to be an exact copy he will sketch up a drawing of what the finished scene will look like and when he plants that bridge in place on the layout it is exactly like his drawing or the pictures in the book down to every last little detail. We then build track and scenery to it and hope it does his work justice.
Welcome to the forum, and don’t even THINK that your question is silly or trivial. It’s a good one, and you’ve gotten some awfully good answers so far.
In my case, the bridges on my Yuba River Sub were ‘pre-planned’ while I was laying the track, so when it came to a place where a bridge was supposed to be, the bridge was put in, the track laid over it and I just continued on with the track-laying. Which meant that the scenery came last (and very carefully, once I had installed all of the bridges, LOL!). The railroad is a fairly large 24x24’ garage layout, and has about 13 bridges, 4 of which are fairly substantial. Two are arch-bridges, one is a double-span through truss, and one–the Deer Creek Viaduct-- is a large 5 actual feet steel tower span on a 36" curve constructed from two ME ‘tall’ viaduct kits.
For that one, I built a large curved ‘spline’ out of WS foam roadbed stacked to the proper height, curved the track (Sinohara bridge flex-track) around it to still run trains while I was constructing the towers for the viaduct. It was the last bridge I installed on the layout. When the ME towers were completed, I removed the track, turned the track upside down on my workbench and fitted the bridge girders to the bottom of the track, then installed the towers. Turned the whole thing over when it was completed, cut out the WS ‘spline’, installed the viaduct and then did what I’ve done with all of the bridges–CAREFULLY scenicked the whole thing after installation.
But except for the Deer Creek Viaduct, as I’ve said, the bridges were planned into the railroad from the beginning, so I didn’t have any surprises waiting for me. Though I’ve got to admit, being a ‘bridge freak’, I occasionally look at my little ‘empire’ and think–“Hey, I could have put one in THERE, LOL!” [:P]
Here’s the Bullard
Hi! Welcome to the Forum!
To answer your question, While its possible to install bridges after the track is in place, I believe it is better to install them first - or at the same time as the track. I wrestled with this last year and found out the hard way (I really knew better - just ignored my own knowledge).
I believe the best way (and folks will surely argue this) is to incorporate the river or stream or whatever is being bridged during benchwork construction. Then, install the bridge, and finally put in the trackwork. I did not do this on the most recent layout (I did on previous ones) and it caused me a lot of hassle.
For what its worth,
Mobilman44
I use spline roadbed on my N-scale layout. I install all of the roadbed and track and get it running before installing any bridges. I have some longer bridges where the spline/track will be cut and removed to install the bridge, but I have others where the bridge will be built in-place around the spline/track.
The following highway overpass is an example of where the roadbed and track will remain in place as shown and the bridge will be built around it:
Jamie
To add to the case of “the chicken or the egg”, For an installation of a Micro Engineering tall viaduct the spline/ track was built, tested and actually run for some time before the bridge was built. What was extremely helpful is that once the ME viaduct was agreed upon (club setting), the various options as to the tower placement and girder sizes was decided to build the bridge. This was a bit more challenging than an average build, however, as the track started into the bridge straight then eased into a super elevated turn. One end was flextrck and the other end handlaid.
Once the bridge ends were located, new rises (sub abutments) were placed and the spline/ roadbed carefully cutout. The irregular shape of this section of spline was used as the template to build the (mitered) girder frame of the viaduct. Since ME bridge flex track isn’t that easily bnet/ curved w/o possibly kinking, I cut a 1/4" plywood template as a guide to shape the track. Super elevation was accomplished by placing styrene shims to the girder tops and painting to match the weathered bridge. With the towers built, the benchwork could be modified to the dimensions needed for the install.
The same was to be done with this section of spline crossing the lowered double track. We since have just added a double portal an passed on the elaborate dual guage bridge here.
I normally lay the track first and mount the bridge sides to the cut down subroadbed…
Usually, I paint the sides beforehand…
Nick
I prefer to build the bridges as you go; but, I did one bridge ‘scene’ on my layout by making a removable module that I finished at my workbench. I used Walthers bridge track and fitted it into the area on the layout so I could remove and reinstall as needed. I set the bridge track upside down on the workbench and cemented the two bridges to it, then test fit it to the layout again. I then built the module with two bridges, a center abutment and the completely finished scenery detail (rocks, roadway under one bridge and shrubbery). I test fit everything as I built it and then finally installed the whole thing back on the layout. The main reason for this approach was the fact that the bridges were at a very inconvient area of the layout and would be difficult to do on the layout. Now, I will blend the scenery into this area when I get to doing the rest of the layout.