Building the West Hickory bridge

[amato1969]

Really clean work so far!

  Frank

[randgust]

There was no tower at the RR junction? Wow. And what's that structure atop the end crossbeam of the bridge?

There was a PRR agent/operator at the West Hickory depot that communicated by telegraph/train order, and a W&D (Hickory Bridge) tolltender at the bridge.  HVRR operations were pretty informal, but PRR sure wasn't so even after studying this little line my entire lifetime, I don't have an answer as to how they did it.   When I got the valuation maps I thought it would solve the mystery.   I never have found the PRR ones at the National Archives, that may still solve it.   The PRR line was decidedly a secondary main, relatively unknown, so it's equally hard to find employee timetables or any other stuff that might clue as to operating practices.   At the moment I'm thinking the tolltender and operator probably communicated and the tolltender just flagged them across PRR.

The 'structure' atop the end crossbeam is the nameplate.   They were pretty proud of the bridge and it had a cast nameplate that is the only surviving artifact today and preserved in the town:  http://historicbridges.org/truss/hickory/plaque.jpg
Not sure how to model that just yet but I'll come up with something.   I've seen no evidence it was ever painted up like that though.

It's also just occurred to me that I've recreated an operational nightmare, because unlike the prototype, I can't roll cars around by gravity.   On the prototype, the inbound empty cars would have been left on the PRR interchange and HV would also switch the tannery tracks from PRR as well as dropping off lumber interchange to PRR and bark cars to the tannery.  On the model, I left just enough room on the LH side of West Hickory to clear a locomotive and tender.  If I add a short double module to the other end to close the siding, I can do the same.  But thinking of how it would work, say four cars and a caboose arriving from the bridge, drop one car of bark at the tannery, switch three cars of lumber to the PRR interchange, pick up four cars from the interchange and swap out one boxcar of finished hides to PRR - and depart in locomotive - train - caboose order back over the bridge.    Now add realistic rules, you can't leave cars on or blocking the Hickory Bridge, or the road crossings, or the PRR main.  You can use the PRR siding to run around, but only room for the locomotive.   I think I just invented a nasty little switching layout, and not a particularly easy one either, now that the 'outside world' for HVRR is the functioning bridge connection.   

[randgust]

While the paint is drying on the first span, the second and third are now well underway.   I'll document some of the ideas and changes that might be a little more useful to anybody playing with these kits.

The cast tie section that comes with the kit is cutout for the cross-stringers.  The intent is that you add your own rails to that one.   Instead, I got a section of Micro-Engineering bridge flex with Code 70 rail.  It has the wide, closely spaced bridge ties.   At that time I wasn't exactly sure how in the heck I was going to put on the road deck.  It also comes with two pieces of Code 70 if you want to put on guard rails.

I really like this stuff.  Even if you aren't putting on a road deck, this is quick and easy way to put track on one of these.  All you do have to do is to cut out the ties to clear the end plates and cross-stringers.  I'm showing a piece on the assembled stringers, and I marked the ties that need to be removed to fit with a silver sharpie:



And then, cut the ties out, which drops the ties down on the stringers.   On a 'normal' bridge you could just glue this down on the stringers and you'd be good.



Now, on my bridges, I added .020 styrene plates between the stringers and the ties to plate over the deck to 14' wide.

.

[narrowminded]

Nice, Randy!

[randgust]

OK, so while I'm working on the second and third spans, I think I finally figured out the handrails on the first.

I decided to go with something easy - Gold Medal Models industrial railings.  I painted a set up white and did a test shot, and decided two things - they look more massive when painted white on a black bridge (good) and were possible to mount on my stripwood deck rails.  Finally, they were tough and could take a beating.   So I did the first span, and now, after painting it with that Rustoleum charcoal black and with white guardrails on it, this is beginning to look like a finished span:



OK, now, here's why I went through all the design grief, which typical to me, made it far more complicated than it probably needed to be.  If you remove the span, you can still tilt out the deck for cleaning.  One rail is secured to the deck, one rail is secured to the bridge, so when its pushed in there it's really locked down tight and flat.  Yet you can pop it up......



and out, and lay it flat to clean track.  Because any bridge this long is sooner or later going to get so dirty you can't get anything over it and you can't run anything through it to clean it without breaking something.  So, this is what I came up with.



This may be unique to the design issues of this bridge, or it may give you some ideas.   I've never seen anybody make a removable deck out of a bridge before so you could clean it, but for this one, it kinda had me stumped.

The more I work on this the more I admire Mark Dance.  Just sayin'.!

One thing that did surprise me when I got the span done is how invisible the track is.  It looks like a road bridge instead of a train bridge.  I'm not sure that's what I wanted, but that's probably the truth of the prototype as well.

I've got to catch the other two spans up to the first one, this may take a while, then we'll start to figure out how to do the abutment mounting so that everything doesn't slide around and I can still get it apart.

[narrowminded]

Very nice, Randy. 

[Cajonpassfan]

Yes, very nice.
And the multiple spans make it an awesome structure.
Otto K.

[unittrain]

Excellent work!!!!!

[randgust]

As this is a portable module of a scene - not just a bridge project - I'll be taking this construction thread through scenery and pouring the water, too.    Although it seems early, I tend to mock-print backdrops from my photos just to get a sense of how the scenery needs to integrate and to make the colors work.  Just putting that blue construction paper behind the bridge (above) is the first sense of what I'm getting. 

I haven't poured water in decades.   I'm modeling June-July, so it's kinda low-water season, not that much current, the photo I posted up front is a good indication.  That day it was low enough you could see the river bottom from the bridge nearly the entire way across, and there was almost no current.  The color variation across the river bottom is interesting as the eastern pier is almost on an island, channel is between the western pier and the center pier.

You'd think that if I matched the same scenery material I did on the main module with the photo backdrop I shot on the same day it would just be right, but I've learned to never assume much of anything.   So once I get the bridge spans done and anchored to piers and abutments, backdrop will probably be next.

[randgust]

OK, so I finished up the other two spans like the first span.

To kind of 'anchor' this thing I drilled through the bridge bearings down into the piers .035 and put 1/4" brass pins in there so it really locks onto the piers.  It still completely disassembles down to the removable spans and decks for cleaning.

But the big thing for me - that I could hardly wait to see - was getting the backdrop behind it to see how it looks.  I shot some hi-res shots standing on the replacement highway bridge last June looking upstream right from the center of the river.   The true 'aha' moment would be when I mock those up and put them on the t-trak standard skyboard behind the 8" module.   If this doesn't work, well, all the bridge work is kind of moot.

So this is just with the backdrop shots pieced up, taped up, and scissor-cut on regular paper to see how this looks.....




But this is the 'dead side on' view looking upstream....



OK, so that's what I wanted.

I want to point out how much this affected how I paint the river bottom.   With the backdrop up you can see that the left side in the sun is reflecting the green trees - the river bottom looks green.   The center reflects a gray-whitish of the reflective water, and the right side in the shade of the trees from the east side is very dark - almost black.    That's what I mean about matching to the backdrop colors, we'll see how this goes.

[narrowminded]

I like it!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That looks awesome. Backdrop photos really do make such a huge difference.

[Philip H]

The more I see stuff like this, the more I think TTrak is not just for shows.  Am I right @arbomambo ?

[randgust]

It's really no different than a shelf railroad standard.     I'll be the first to say I'm not in love with Unitrack, except for the genius of the connectors.  The general '1 foot blocks', 2 3/4" working height, 14" depth - 1 1/2" setback at joints, is really not that hard to hit, particularly if you have a series of modules that hit that mark at the beginning and end.

Dave Ferrari did the setups of the 'free for all' T-track layout at Altoona.  But what was incredible was that at the end of show, we all gathered around, and BOOM.... the entire monster ad-hoc layout was down, boxed, cleared, and packed in 20 minutes flat.  The portability of the T-track envelope (topping out at 14x36 for a triple module is a heck of a lot easier to move than Ntrak.  I don't need a trailer and a truck. 

I've personally been caught wanting to build more layout, and have no space at all, but realize that crawling under one to wire it is probably now not feasible either.   I've always modeled western Santa Fe as a semi-portable layout, but the truth of it is that I've also done eastern logging since the start as well, and I refuse to be guilty about that, either.   This portable modular approach started for me in 1975 with the 18x36 Hickory Valley Railroad layout in MR - this T-trak business has just given me a new set of standards so that I can also use these modules at shows with other modelers.    I built Ross Run to 21x42 and was stunned how much heaver it was to move around... darn near a two-person operation.  Nope, T-trak for me now.    And this set of modules that I'm building now are being constructed in such a way that I can reconfigure them for a variety of purposes, with the ultimate destiny that they'd be historically accurate enough to end up at the local historical societies when I'm done with them.   I was hacking up plywood for a T-trak double last night just enjoying the smell of cut lumber again - to me that's right up there with new car smell!

[casmmr]

Phillip, I have t-trak modules for my home layout and others for the club's travel t-trak layout.  I think it is a great way to go as it can be completely disassembled, moved and re-assembled without the loss of any part of the layout.  With the modules, when you get bored with the layout, change it.  The ability to change the layout from time to time is why I use this as my home layout.  later Craig

randgust, I enjoy following your build and look forward to seeing the progress if you bring it to Altoona again this year.  later, craig