Steel Trestle

[cv_acr]

A couple shots of part of a low steel trestle bridge I'm building for the club layout. This is very heavily kitbashed from a Micro-Engineering trestle kit to match the prototype bridge. The higher clearance "arched" section which spans a double-track mainline is totally scratchbuilt, I just completed this section tonight. There's one more tower and a couple of longer bridge spans to complete the bridge.

First, the prototype:






Early construction shot of the middle tower.

[nwline]

WOW !     very nice start , please keep the progress photos coming.

[cv_acr]

nwline: thanks. I've been working on this for over a year, somewhat sporadically. I got the largest chunk of work done over the christmas holidays last year, when i took all the bridge supplies home to my parent's place and set up on my dad's workbench in the basement. I live in a pretty small apartment, so my workbench and computer desk is the same - and it's hard to have both at the same time, so it's difficult to just leave a project sitting there for a long time.

With the span over the CP main complete, all the pieces are prety much done, next up is assembly, and then working out the bridge footing and installing it on location and sceniking around it.

[cv_acr]

Here's the location on the club layout where the bridge will be installed. It'll cross the road and both rail lines. Unfortunately, it's just scenery, the only trains will pass below the bridge. None over.

[cv_acr]

Here's all three towers:

[cv_acr]

Details of the clearance span over the CP mainline:




One of the spans that will sit on top of the towers:

[tom mann]

Looks real nice!

[railbuilderdave]

This looks really nice good work!

[central.vermont]

Wow Chris that IS nice!!!!!!!
Could you tell me what railroad would be on the bridge? I'm not
familiar with the area you are modeling.

Jon

[cv_acr]

Jon, absolutely.

The bridge is part of the CN spur into Sudbury, in order to interchange with CP and INCo. The CN mainline passes to the northeast of Sudbury, while CP actually goes right though. The CN spur crosses the CP mainline just under a mile to the west, as well as the CP branchline that the CN spur eventually connects with - which branches off at the west end of the CP yard. (this line is part of the former Algoma Eastern Ry which was leased by the CPR in 1930 for a period of 999 years)
Another westward CP branchline departs from the yard towards Sault Ste Marie (this line now operated by the shortline Huron Central (Genesee-Wyoming family)) but has no connections to the CN spur.

A map may help make a little more sense, below is an overall schematic of the locations (that will eventually be) represented on the club layout. (Map not to scale, but representative of their real-life locations). The CN spur crosses the Cartier and Nickel subs immediatly west of Sudbury, and then links up with the Nickel sub at the appropriately named CN Junction. CN trains have trackage rights to Clarabelle which is the interchange point with INCO's private railway. There will be a live connection from a CN staging yard to CN junction, so CN trains will be able to run into clarabelle and exchange CP interchange cars at CN Junction, but there just wasn't enough space in the building to actually have them cross the bridge in that scene. So the bridge is just scenery, and trains appear out of staging right at the junction switch at CN Junction.



The nickel sub. will be a very busy branchline when it is actually complete. CP ore trains shuttle between Clarabelle and two diferent mines (one of them at Creighton, at the end of the nickel sub branch) and a quartz quarry (for smelter flux apparently) and a CN train brings in sand for some purpose. Add in fuel oil (via CN) and coal (via CP), unit train quantities of sulphuric acid (byproduct of smelting), CN/CP interchange traffic at CN Junction and also a slag loaded at CN junction provides ballast