Building the Pinacle Creek Mining & Timber Co. RR

[skillman]

As a previous contest winner I kind of held back. I thought that the wisp of smoke was a photographic glitch. I almost posted that early on. Now I'm glad I stayed out of the conversation.
Great job Toot and a fun diversion Jim.

Steve

[HOexplorer]

Thanks Steve, my pleasure.

I'm still trying to figure out why the photos didn't print to the site at 1500 yesterday! My wife was playing with her Garmin GPS downloading updated maps. Not her fault, but I don't think the router could handle the load.

Anyway, tomorrow I will post the building photos of the "last bridge" as promised for those that are looking forward to them. Jim

[HOexplorer]

And, one more thing! Interestingly I checked the California Earthquakes site and while I was taking the photos we had a very small quake only 20 miles from my house. This is my reason for the loco to have moved during the 5 minute interval between photos. This is my story and I'm sticking to it! Jim

http://www.data.scec.org/recenteqs/Q...i15231505.html

[HOexplorer]

Time for building 'Last Bridge.'

There are eight bridges and two culverts on the PCM&T Company layout. Because the room is only 11'x10' I've had to make the bridges curved to make everything fit.. The through truss being the only straight bridge.

All the rest were built by hand. The log bridges matching as close as I could to the probable way the loggers and miners would have built their own. Not pretty necessarily, but adequate to the task.

I've covered the log bridges and some on the cliff bridges and the bigger trestle. Now is time for the "Last Bridge," so named because it is the last to be built. Last Bridge is on a curve. It is only about 39 feet long, but must still hold the load on the curve.

First thing I build on any bridge is some sort of abutment. These keep the land from falling and the ends of the track from sinking. Some abutments are stone, cement, or in this case, finished wood. The mainline is a low classification and a trains will only go 25 mph on it.

As always I built with track in place. This helps building the rest of the bridge in the correct curve and is less likely to have to be done over because a prebuilt bridge wouldn't fit.



Now, for all you engineers out there. I'm not one. In all my layouts and all my bridges, mostly all hand built, I have adhered to one rule: It's my bridge on my layout and I will build it so it looks like it will hold the load. That's it. I don't mind hearing that it may not, but I build them to suit me.

I could cut the ends of a number wood sections and fit them together to make the proper curve, but I prefer to notch the bass wood lumber.



By doing this with my saw I am able to bend a curve.

More later.

[tootnkumin]

Very tricky.

[HOexplorer]

The notching with the saw is one thing. I like to put in a bit more with the blade bisecting the groove. Almost through but not quite. Be careful.



This final cut allows us to bend the wood without breaking it. Between you fingers on both hands carefully and slowly bend the wood at the notch over your thumbs. This may take some practice.



Do each notch. If you snap the wood because you bent it too fast it may snap. Hopefully it didn't break alll the way in half. Even if you did break it in half continue bending the rest. (more carefully this time!) When you are done you should have this:



If you broke the wood clear through glue it back together. The wood will fit quite nicely.

More next post.

[HOexplorer]

I put wood under some of the ties. I will attached the bent wood to these seemingly 'extra' ties. This may not be prototypical but I didn't want this little bridge to look like all the rest, plus it is even with the wood used for the abutments. I think this will look good and have the strength to hold up the train. I use WS Foam Tack Glue. Let it dry a bit before attaching the wood to the plastic.



Next while this wood is drying. Build two more wooden pieces. Remember the middle and inside will each be shorter because of the curve. Doesn't matter where you start. Go ahead and glue the curve piece to the bottom of the wood attached to the ties.



I used three curved wood pieces. It is enough. Four is okay, but two is not enough. After these have dried I glue the tops of the trestle bents to the bottoms of the three curved pieces. What this is doing is building the bridge from top to bottom. The plusses are everything will be square.



More next post.

[HOexplorer]

Almost finished. I used round wood (barbque scewers) for the bents. I measure and cut until one fits. Since I'm using four bents if I mis-measure, my wood will probably fit in another place. Tweesers are very important to this bent building.

When all the glue is dry. Attach the cross members. I just put them on one side and opposite from the bents on the other side. Don't worry about gaps at ground level. Ground cover will fill the voids.



The inside curved piece will have the notches showing a bit. Think. Will anyone reasonbly see the notches on the other side of the bridge? Not on mine. Some Woodland Scenics Foam Putty will fill the notches if they are a bother. Then you can add color and weathering after it dries. Also because this bridge is a curve I angled in the outside wood on all the bents more than on the inside.

Finished with Last Bridge. Now let's look at the 'builders' photo.



Here is a hint: If you want to make this outside curved piece look like "pieces" simply scribe down every eight HO scale feet or so. Add some more wood 'dye' product and it will fill in the scribe nicely.

Questions? Jim

[Railrunner130]

Awesome! Thanks for the tutorial.

[HOexplorer]

Toot, Hate to have you say that! My enginners from the Alaska Territory have assured me that for this classification of railroad this bridge is adequate for low speeds and projected loads. The bridge is made of fine Alaskan Spruce. Very strong and the beam is 12"x12".

This bridge is quite small. The center span is only 11 feet. I long jumped 17' in highschool. Notice there is no sag in photo!



I suppose this is a good example of 'scale' in model railroading. In the Builders Photo there was little to show how small this bridge is. In fact something this size wouldn't rate a name on a real railroad. So I'm going to still sleep well tonight knowing my engineer and fireman are not in harms way. Jim

PS I'm off to the post office in an hour. Send your name and address via a PM please.