Full Version: Juneco 75 foot deck Bridge
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My next project:

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My branchline to the stamp mill needs this to complete the trackwork to it and the future logging camp.

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I've never built a wooden bridge kit before. I have a Howe truss bridge further down on the branchline but I had given the kit to my Father many years ago to build as me skills weren't up to the task at the time. 

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Opening it, it's more like a scratchbuild with the parts supplied. Some of the lumber is cut to size, some isn't. it includes some metal castings for the hardware and water barrels as well as wire for the tension rods.
Some progress over this weekend, starting with staining.

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I used some Micro-Mark Weather-it-easy brown stain. I just dumped it into a storage container and let the parts soak for about 30 minutes before fishing them out to dry. Three batches were needed for all the parts.

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I liked how they came out in the end. The parts are sorted out using a couple TV dinner plates.

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The first steps involve a lot of cutting, notching and drilling of the truss's top and bottom chord pieces. I made a slight problem for myself when I stained all the wood, removing the color-coding that was put on the ends to determine sizes. Because of that, the calipers came out. 

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I pinned the templates to a piece of insulation foam with a sheet of wax paper on top. I then started to assemble the trusses by pinning and gluing the parts together onto the template.

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After a couple hours work I had one complete truss, and one half built.
Looking good.
Thanks Tom.

I spent some time in the workshop this evening and finished the second truss assembly:

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I like the way that the stain took. I also like the idea of  full-size templates. Looking good...
Thanks Don. I like how the stain isn't overpowering the wood grain and allows detail to show.

I managed to get quite a bit done over the past week. I've been trying to complete instruction 1 step each evening.

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To join the two truss assemblies, I first had to clamp them the correct distance apart, then glue in the  bottom cross laterals. Then I added the wind struts (the cross bracing inside the structure), and then the top laterals. It's kind of like building a spider web out of 1/16 basswood.

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I also attached the floor beams at this time. 

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I then glued the bottom struts. Both the floor beams and bottom struts are drilled for the hanger rods to run through. Since the floor beam were already in place, I used those to locate the struts by running the piano wire through both prior to gluing.

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The last thing I did tonight was to installing the hanger rods and the tie rods. Now it's starting to look like something!

However I have run into a problem. I can't seem to find any photos or plans of what the bridge abutments for this sort of bridge would look like, either wood or stone. I would prefer to scratchbuild out of wood but stone would be okay as well.
reminds me of building the dinkey creek bridge years ago. as far as abutments have you tried searching   bridgehunters . com ? here is a photo of a old railroad crossover  not the same kind of bridge but gives you an idea  of what old stone abutments look like.
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Jim
Glen,

i have had never seen how this wooden bridges were built. Thank you for your by the means of many photos very well documented construction progress. Thumbsup


Lutz
Thanks Lutz and Jim. I checked out Bridgehunters.com and came up with a few ideas for some timber piers/abutments. It would involve building two more bents for the bridge itself, and 4 more shorter ones to make the end piers. More on that later.

I added the cast metal hardware yesterday:

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It took more time to do this than I thought it would. the NBW castings simulate the threaded ends of the tension rods and so I had to drill some of the holes out a bit larger and also shorten some of the tension rods. Made the holes just big enough so the castings would 'friction fit' and I wouldn't have to use glue. The upper and lower channel castings are glued on and are retaining the vertical tension rods in place.

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I then built the two end bents, using the kit templates as a jig.

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Ready to be glued in place.

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Then I started with the bridge deck, first by taping the bridge ties into place.

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Then I glued the glued the stringers to the ties, this is all built upside down.

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And lastly, I started to hand-lay the track onto the deck. I got about this far when my back started to tell me it was time to stop. I hope to get back at it in the next few days.
Very cool!

One of those kits that is really just a bunch of scratch building supplies and instructions. I've built a few, just never a bridge.
Thanks Kevin. This was my first bridge that I've built. If it wasn't for the top notch instructions, I doubt I could have been able to finish it.
I finished off the trackwork:

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I ended up spiking every 5th tie for the main rails, 10th tie for the guard rails. I have spikes that are short enough to just go through the bridge ties and stringers so they didn't interfere with assembling the decking to the main structure later. 

Then I made it through final assembly, starting with adding the bents to the main structure.

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and then the deck

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Centering the deck on the main assembly took a bit of measuring but it worked out in the end.

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And then a quick fit check on the layout:

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I was relieved when the bridge fit exactly how I had run the roadbed. Now I have to fill in the benchwork under it and then I can start measuring for the piers and abutments.
Worship you did it Glen, awesome work. Thumbsup


Lutz
The results look great, Glen.   Applause Applause Applause

Wayne
Agree, agree...... 2285_ 2285_
Totally jealous. That looks great!

I should show a photo of your bridge to my 4-year old son. He would immediately go and start building one out of his blocks. He's obsessed with bridges, and yesterday he was watching Curious George and learned that triangles in bridges make them stronger. So he immediately made a truss bridge with his blocks and pushed his trains over it.
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