Prototype for Walthers Single Track Truss Bridge?

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

Hi,

What is a suitable prototype for the Walthers Single Track Truss Bridge?

Would this be used over water or over road or over rail?

Thanks,

Colin

2

Hi Colin,

There is a bridge in Piru California, that is just about a match for that one. It runs over Piru creek. Just google Piru Ca. bridge, it has lots of good shots of it.

have fun

Phil

3

I can’t say which prototype was followed when the Walthers bridge was designed. It’s pretty generic. A number of steel fabricators carried similar bridges as catalog items, and would deliver a cut-to-order ‘kit’ (on a couple of railroad cars) to the end user. The UP (used to be SP) bridge across the Colorado River at Yuma, AZ, was built from such a kit - says so right on the historical marker. There is a similar bridge at Benson, AZ.

What you use it for on your model railroad can be any of the above, at any place where the combination of length and underside clearance makes deck girder or deck truss construction impractical. Through trusses do limit use by wide or tall loads, but sometimes there is no real choice. Rivers that flood, other people’s railroads (or maybe your own) and streets and highways all require headroom. A through truss was one way to provide it.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - where the one through truss carried a road and a narrow gauge railway)

4

Railroad bridge at Piru (Pie-rooo), CA

http://bridgehunter.com/ca/ventura/bh42629/

And at Santa Paula

http://bridgehunter.com/ca/ventura/bh42980/

This site has photos and/or maps of hundreds/thousands of bridges.

5

D. All of the above.

6

Specifically, the bridge is one of the spans on the NKP’s bridge over the Wabash River in Lafayette, IN. The model’s designer was a Purdue man…!

7

Hi Colin –

Here are some prototype pictures that shows bridges that appear to be fairly similar to the Walthers single truss bridge:

Wagon bridge over stream, Princeton, MN, ca 1910: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/image.cfm?imageid=11929

MIlwaukee Road swing bridge at Hastings, ca 1930: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/image.cfm?imageid=11048

Bridge over RR tracks, Raymond Avenue, St. Paul, 1952: http://collections.mnhs.org/visualresources/image.cfm?imageid=166600

Smile,
Stein

8

This model uses parts from the Bascule Bridge kit, which is no longer available. As such, it’s based on a Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal prototype constructed in Chicago during the 1920s.

“Would this be used over water or over road or over rail?”

All of the above – the design is typical of railroad bridges found just about everywhere.

"Specifically, the bridge is one of the spans on the NKP’s bridge over the Wabash River in Lafayette, IN.

Actually that’s a different kit, the Double-Track Truss Bridge #933-3012; I shot the photos used to design that model.

The model’s designer was a Purdue man…!"

And a member of their model railroad club while he was there. :wink:

Lance Burton
Senior Writer, Wm. K. Walthers, Inc.