I decided to reverse the truss on my Truss bridge to make it a deck bridge. I want it to look like the bridge in this photo. http://pghbridges.com/newkenW/0599-4487/blear.htm The deck will be 160’ (12” N scale} above the water so I need 10” piers. I’ve never seen piers that tall in N scale and I was wondering that since it will be a double wide that maybe I could use HO scale single pier. I will be also painting the bridge Green as soon as I can figure out the correct color.
First, being from Pgh, I am amused/surprised such a site exists. Question some of the history on at least on bridge from stories I have been told and curious about other facts. I have a HO Walthers book, I will try to take a scan through tomorrow for you and see if there is something might work without being out of scale. Look forward to your project.
Thanks. I found one place that has a 12” HO pier that I can cut down, but they are not taking orders. Most of everything else I found is 4-1/8”. I might have to learn how to make them myself to get 10”. If it were just a smooth poured concrete surface it would be easy, but those cut stone blocks are another story. baffled:
Model Railstuff has HO piers that are 8 1/2", then you'd have to add another 1 1/2" to them. Looks like you can buy a set of three different heights, so maybe you could cut off part of the shorter ones and add it to the tallest one. Or just make like a concrete base for em...
Hi - I made these out of pine 1x2's, sanded down on the belt sander for the basic shape, then I the brick lines scribed the brick lines w/ a ball point pen - the wood is soft enough for the pen to make indentations. Then primed w/ latex wall paint, painted and weathered heavily. I think yours look like you could use the same method. Pretty easy and best of all, free
Thanks. That’s big help, but also looks like it’s going to get costly because I’m spanning 44“ and going to need quite a few sets. I was thinking this morning about how to make my own and I was thinking of cutting a piece of wood and then gluing on cut pieces of maybe Scenic Express or Chooch stone retaining wall. The actual pier is 83ft wide at the base and 71ft at the top so that’s going to be a little over 5 ¼” at the top. I’m only going to make it 4” at the top. My Kato double truss is 42 ft wide and the actual truss is 39 ft wide so it’s not going to be exact anyway. Plus my bridge is 586 ft total (386.6 ft long for the truss part). The real bridge is 2327 ft total. It’s not going to be an exact replica. I just want it look like the real one.
Yes, the track is curved, the steel bridge is 2 straight sections that are on a curve and centered under the track deck.
Dave's method of using wood looks so good I hesitate mentioning the method I use, but it's always nice to have options! I cast them hydrocal, but any plaster would work. I construct thre frame from blue foam insulation or styrene. The plaster doesn't stick. After it dries, it can be carved or sanded smooth and painted. For one the size you require, I would suggest reinforcing the inside with sticks or wire. Good luck with whatever method you choose, looks like a fun project. Attached is a poured bridge column photo, each of these sections were made in the method above.
So if I understand this correctly you’re using the blue foam as the mold then pouring the plaster or whatever in to it to make your pier, it that correct? Oh that’s a pretty cool setup your got there and I really like it. :thumbs_up:
Interesting data on the Bessemer bridge. Note that there's specific information there on just how tapered the piers are; like 6' up on each side. A modern concrete-cast pier might not be that tapered. But if you're going for the stone look (cut stone) then it should be. Dave's got the right idea to keep it easy and affordable - a pine 'core' that can be planed or cut to shape, and laminated over with some kind of sheet material with a simulated stone surface. I did a search on Walthers for 'stone sheet'. Pay no attention to scale, pay attention to results. I used to use a lot of styrene sheet material myself, much in HO. Just a suggestion. Note this stuff is pre-colored: Stone Sheets -- Cut Granite (272-222565) -- Walthers Model Railroad Mall The highway bridge shot I gave you before is over the Allegheny Reservoir. The Morrison Bridge is just huge (like the Bessemer bridge). There's usually 100' of concrete pier UNDER WATER undr that bridge, plus another 25-30' above the water. You have to pay attention to general proportions, but yeah, that's a chunky pier.
Yes, it is tapered which I am going to try to copy as best I can so as not to overwhelm my layout. If I do it out of wood I can make it any shape or size I need because I have fully equipped wood shop with tools even for the small stuff. It’s the cut stone texture that might be the problem. I once made a small N-scale concrete block building out of wood and hand carved out all the grout lines for the block. It was tedious work and luckily it was a small building, because I don’t think I would have finished. I don’t want to do that again for these monsters. err: The stone sheets gave me an idea, I downloaded some printable templates a few years ago and I just need to find them. :lightbulb:
Yes, I use the blue foam for the mold, it's fast, cheap and works just fine. The plaster cleans up quite easy, and the mold can be reused or tossed. dave n, Thank you for the kind remarks, after seeing some of your modeling I am humbled and grateful.
If you go to the site you reference in your post you will see a small schematic of the B&LE bridge in the picture. If you click on the schematic it will enlarge. The schematic also has a scale on the right side. Using that scale I come up with piers about 75-80 feet high above water. That is about 5 13/16 - 6" high. Do you need piers 10" high so the track mates with other sections of the layout or can the entire track [or river] be adjusted ?
Well maybe my math is flawed but the specs read that “the deck is approx. 160 feet above river level” which puts it at 12” on my N-scale diorama. My Kato Deck truss is 2” which is leaves me 10” for a pier. I guess I could fudge that some, but I want plenty of clearance for the steel mill. Actually now that I think about it, one of the reasons I had for going so deep was that I originally had a second lower bridge that had to be high enough for boats to pass underneath. Now that I got rid of the lower bridge when I learned that there was an actual bridge that was of considerable significance to me personally, I could raise the river some as long as I can still capture the illusion of 160 ft height. I had to go help my daughter today and haven’t had time to do anything, but I’m still struggling with how I’m actually going to make them. I will probably try the wood with a color stone printed paper, because it is the fastest and easiest. I don’t have any materials to use the mold method and I know the wood pier with the lines drawn in is free, but it still takes a good amount of skill to paint and weather it like Dave and Rich have done with their piers. If the glued-on paper looks weird, then I'll start trying the other methods.
Yes this is great, and I’m really glad that Inkaneer brought up the fact that real piers aren’t as high as I was thinking they were, because this is really important. I can’t control the height of the Kato Truss, but I need to also keep it in portion even though it’s not going to be to an exact scale. So I’m thinking doing an elevation drawing before I start on the piers, because if it will be a disaster if it ends up with the piers being out of proportion.
