BNSF - Ponderosa Subdivision

[chuck geiger]

Back to work on track laying - thumbs healed.

[badlandnp]

I feel your pain with the ME railjoiners!

I took a small piece of rail and bent a 90 degree handle into one end. Then, on the longer end, I tapered the end of the rail a little so I could start a joiner on it and then use the tool to apply the joiner to the rail.

Good luck and keep the blood off the trains!

[chuck geiger]

I have been opening them up pretty good with used XACTO. Working pretty good.

[Lemosteam]

@chuck geiger , if you want some real pivoting bridge shoes, I have extras I can mail to you for free.  PM your address to me if you'd like them.  Ed K. can attest.  I assume you would want four?

[chuck geiger]

@chuck geiger , if you want some real pivoting bridge shoes, I have extras I can mail to you for free.  PM your address to me if you'd like them.  Ed K. can attest.  I assume you would want four?

My man, thanks....

CHUCK GEIGER
PO BOX 240324
DOUGLAS, AK 99824

Oh PM, post mental....

[chuck geiger]

They look way better than the end of zip ties, yes 4 thank you.

[chuck geiger]

Also has anyone built their own bridge walls that look decent? Foam piers aren't best, but with good walls, could work? - I have the bridge resting on the piers and there is a gap between the piers and the landform. Not real prototypical? Something is amiss in River City!
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/11/t/221526.aspx

[nkalanaga]

I cast my piers and abutments in plaster, using Lego bricks to make the pier molds.  A 2-wide brick works nicely for an N scale between-span pier, while balsa strips work for the abutment piers and back walls.

In my case, I just glued the abutment piers, where the shoes sit, to the back walls, after the back walls were glued to the roadbed support.  Those, in turn, were glued in place with the track present, so they would be against the ties.   The bridge was put in place, temporarily, and the abutment piers pushed up against the shoes.  This was all done with a piece of 1x2, or a steel bar, on top of the track/bridges, to make sure everything was level.  The bar was used for through bridges, like ours, and is a foot long piece of half inch "key stock" from the hardware store.

Center piers, on my long bridge, were done the same way, except that they're supported on wood "shims", thin tapered wood strips, from the same hardware store.  the piers are tall enough to be buried in the scenery, so the shims are also hidden, and allowed the piers to be leveled and adjusted without a lot of scenery tinkering.

[davefoxx]

I cast the piers on my last layout with anchoring cement.  Nothing beats the look of concrete than actual concrete!

Sorry, this is the best image that I can locate on my phone, but look at the abutments of the plate girder bridge under the M³T:



DFF

[LIRR]

abutments made from plywood, covered with joint compound, then scribed/carved the stones...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

My bridge piers are foamcore covered in HO JTT brick sheet.

[chuck geiger]

Wire, solder, flux all here via the Amazon Drone Some wiring July 4th morning. So thanks for the info on abutments and piers.

I have foam adhered to a 2x4 thick board, like last layout. What is the best bet for laying the bus wire? There is a 3' table with glass it sits on. I was thinking, just drilling out the holes and laying the wires to the underside. I can remove the glass, which I will have a clean shot to the underside of the layout board.

[chuck geiger]

Flashing back to Mr. Gilbert's 8th grade electric shop at Hale Junior High in San Diego. BTW Mark Hamill went there. Were I also read every Model Railroader I could in the school library and checked them out by the dozen. 1968!

[chuck geiger]

So what if...I put terminal rings on the end of big 12 gauge stranded (looks like battery cables lite). For the bus, will it work? To connect to power source (MRC) - Then the ends get capped and are open leads? With only 22g feeder to stock rails and frog rails for turnouts?

[nickelplate759]

12 gauge will work but is serious overkill for a modest n scale layout.  Even 16 gauge is more than big enough.