Well, I bought a truss bridge last summer and over the winter, I took some of the trusses off and then added parts on to make the ends verticle, put a roof on it, side panneling, and then the roof was completed. I modeled it after the Fisher bridge in northern Vermont. I had plans to visit the actual bridge to get better pics, but was unable too. So I used the pics off the internet and just went at it. there was no planning no pre-building desinging stages, all the parts were designed as I was building it up. there are irregularities in it, but I let them slide.
Let me know what you guys think of it.
the link below has all the pics from the layout. the bridge is near the end. you can see the original truss bridge in other pics in the set. I used it as my base.
Then there is this page, but I didnt find it until after the bridge was completed, the Fisher bridge is just over halfway down the page, its called the “East of Wolcott Railroad Bridge”:
Very nice. I have visited that bridge in VT many times. That has to be my faverite state. Was going to move up their until I found out there was no jobs or atleast hard to find. Great place to visit. Keep us updated.
Kevin. You’ve made good progress on you layout. The bridge looks great. I love the uneven boards on the siding. Many of the remaining covered bridges in Pennsylvania have them because of repairs over the years. Jack
the side boards are different length soley because I wasnt careful with measuring. then I decided to keep them that way and have them as they ended up. I knew that the actual bridge had that flairing at the bottom, but i didnt feel aggresive enough to model that. I have a road bridge closer to home that until the current renovations to it, had all the boards uneaven, so i went for that. The wife saw them uneaven and asked to have them stay that way too.
Now, since i didnt have that second webpage until after the model was finished, I didnt know what the roof was constructed of. I was guessing it was metal and had plans to do a coper roof and then weather it with eggs, but the wife put a stop to that and said she wanted shingles. So, shingles it is, she had to help though if she wanted shingles. she helped, one night, but that was it. oh well, it got completed regardless.
the bridge is 53" long each side board is 1" wide, its not proto, but oh well.
there are jobs here in VT, you just need to lower your standards of living to make it.
I see that you successfully replicated the unevenness of the side wall planking. Adds a degree of rusticness to the project. Nice job, well done and thanks for sharing.
Maggie, likes the bridge a lot. she is the one that requested the shakes. yes, all shakes were hand laid…are they laid right? well, I DONT think so. the wife wanted the shakes so i told her that she needed to help lay them. so the bridge came in to the living room and we sat down in front of the TV and started. she started before me, as she was excited and didnt want to wait for me to get some trash bags to cover the rug first…when i came back, she had 8" laid and the grain of the shakes was running…horizontal…not verticle…I noticed it right off. I told her that they were wrong, that they need to run verticle. “I like them this way, and I have already started.” that was her answer. so…all the shakes run their grain horizontal. its not right, and its NOT going to help shed the water and could cause problems latter on. I put a healthy coat of thompsons water seal over it and the plans are for the bridge to come in during the winter months, so…maybe it will be ok. later on that same night, my wife stopped and said, “oh, yeah, I guess you are right, they should go the other way.” it was too late at that point. only time will tell what will happen.
I did not stay to scale with the shakes, the store did have 1:24 scale, but they were really small. the ones on there are just under 1" square, they are intended for shake siding on doll houses. we laid them so they overlap each lower row by about 1cm. all shakes were laid by hand and eye, we didnt use any ruler to keep it straight. even though it was 53" in length, it stayed pretty straight. i would say the variation is only about .5cm. the row that got to the base of the coupula(i know i spelt it wrong) was at the base all the way the length of the bridge. I bought 3 bags of shakes, $11 each, each bag was intended to cover 3 square feet. All I know is th
As for the way there going it still could have happened per the RR guy over seeing the project. So don’t sweat the small stuff.
But if you want to regrain it and feel you have a good base glue then get a steel brush, look in welding dept or paint, and pull in the direction you need to go.
I didnt feel wrong telling her the shakes were in the wrong direction. but I also just didnt argue with her, afterall it is just a model and will be pulled in during the winter.