Building Bridges

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I was wondering what type of material I should use to build a 4 foot 1 and a half inch
long bridge with double track on HO scale?

I am new to the hobby but have been around it for years, just never had my own.

Any advice would be greatly used.

[:)][:)]

2

Wood works well… What kind of bridge do you want?? This one is 3 feet long and supported only on the ends… Double track, admittedly too large in scale for HO but it lets the trains roll over the track below it.

http://www.rolleiman.com/trains/bigbridge.jpg

Or are you after something more like this?

http://www.rolleiman.com/trains/shaytrain1.jpg

edit:changed images from inline to clickable links…

3

Was wanting more of like the one in the picture attached but metal looking and on a straight section.

4

5

Microengineering has kits you can construct such a bridge from… Expensive though… If you go with them expect to spend a couple hundred building a bridge like that…

http://www.walthers.com/exec/page/manuinfo/v255

Of course, there’s Plastruct, and you can scratch build your own

http://www.walthers.com/exec/page/manuinfo/v570

I’m not suggesting you buy the stuff from Walthers, I’ve just provided the links to get you going…

Good luck…

6

Thanks for the information.

Should I notch out where the bridge with meet with the wood?

7

To really give you a definative answer I would need to know exactly what you are doing. In general however, what I do, is basically let the track determine the bridge height and then build supports underneath it where needed or wanted… The bridge itself goes up To the wood sub-roadbed, not notched into it. Let the track determine how it lays.

[image]http://www.rolleiman.com/trains/DSC53292.JPG[/image]

(the bridge in front is what I want you to see)

The stone wall castings were cut to fit After the bridge was in place.

Be careful though (if building on a grade) that you don’t introduce any bumps of valleys into your track… Could prove disasterous on a 4 foot long bridge (at any height). I’d suggest clicking the links to member’s websites (mine says Web at the bottom of each post) and looking at how they do things. If you want to spend some change on a book, Kalmbach offers one that’s pretty nice.

http://store.yahoo.net/kalmbachcatalog/12101.html

Good night (or morning, whatever it is for you [|)])

8

By adding piers, you can string several shorter bridges together to make a long span. Walthers double track bridge sounds like it would fit your needs. You would need about 4 of them. I don’t know if it would work out to exactly 4 feet 1 inch but it would be close.

9

Can you support the bridge in the middle, or is this the kind of bridge that spans a doorway in an around-the-room layout? If you really have to span 4 feet without support, you’re going to need to consider some structural support to prevent sagging.

10

A long bridge I built was constructed using 1" square metal tubing to support the track. The intermediate supports are for looks only. Cover the tubing with styrene shapes to make it look like a grider bridge. The only support is at the ends.