I’m building a U shaped layout with a plywood based lift out bridge across the open end. The lift out is 24" long and 5" wide and I’m using 4 Atlas 3" bridge piers (item #81), & 2 Atlas 9" deck bridge kits (item #884) to cross the lift out space. I cut one of the piers in half to make abutments at the ends of the bridge. The problem is, since I centered the bridges, that this leaves two 3" gaps at each end to be filled in with something. I also purchased the Atlas, 4 sections, pier girder set (item #82) to try to fill the two gaps. Now I have no good idea how to use the pier girders to cross the two 3" gaps at each end of the bridge. I have never seen a real pier girder on a prototype bridge or even a picture of them being used on a model layout. If anyone has a suggestion how to modify these pier girders or any other method of crossing two 3" gaps between the bridge piers or even a picture of using a pier girder I would be very grateful to learn. Since I hand lay my own track, I will be glueing wood ties across the bridge truss decks and girders and nailing down the rails. Thanks for any ideas
Here are some pics that may help.
These bridge shoes are at the far left of the above photo. If you look to the right of the cement you can see wood beams filling the space between the cement pier where the steel bridge sits and the ballasted roadbed. The ties sat directly on these beams at one time.
Here are a couple of more pics of the bridge.
Can you post some photo’s? It would really help with making suggestions.
Brent[C):-)]
Perhaps this will help you. I extensively photographed a CSX bridge on the Thomas Sub. The collection is here.
Alan,
Thanks for the great pictures of your bridge. I’m sure I can use some of the ideas shown in them for finishing my bridges. The problem I am having is in using the Atlas #82 pier girder set it does not have the vertical side panels shown in your photos and does not look to be heavy enough to support a train, real or miniature. This is what the pier girder looks like.
I have tried adding a picture of the girder from my layout web page but can’t seem to figure out how to get it into this post, sorry.
That is actually the horizontal crossbracing that is used between the girder (I- beams). Central Valley and better yet Micro Engineering 30 or 50 ft open girder kits are available as addons to the steel viaduct would propably suit your needs to fill the gap.
The pier girders are certainly strong enough to run model trains. I have a number of them spanning a cut on my layout. To tell the truth, they aren’t necessary in a model, as the track itself, at least Atlas Code 100, is stronger than the girder. But, cosmetically it looks a lot better.
Are your bridge sections and piers already fastened down, or can you move them? One solution I could see would be to move the deck bridges to the ends, and then fashion a 6-inch section in the middle. This could be done, for example, with a plate girder bridge. In particular, if this is a bridge over a navigable waterway, it would give clearance for larger boats to pass through the center channel.