BNSF - Ponderosa Subdivision

[chuck geiger]

Thanks George. It looks like a rope....

[nkalanaga]

If you have it, and it's long enough, I'd use it.  Overkill it may be, but if it's paid for, you won't need to buy new wire.

[davefoxx]

Depending on your soldering iron of choice, you may not have a lot of success in soldering feeders to such a heavy gauge.  If I remember correctly, my soldering iron has trouble and just barely can make a good soldering joint between feeders and either 14 or 16 gauge wire (I can't recall the exact gauge it had the trouble with).   

DFF

[MK]

My guess would be 14 gauge.  14 is borderline and 12 gauge is pushing it unless you have a heavy duty iron, which most people do not.

[chuck geiger]

The big fat rope wire is pre-tinned and silver strands.

[nickelplate759]

If you use 16awg or 18awg for your bus you can skip soldering and use 3M IDC connectors to tap 22awg feeders.  #905 is the one you want.

[MK]

The big fat rope wire is pre-tinned and silver strands.

Irrelevant.  There still needs to be a big enough of a heat source to melt the solder on to the wire without having the wire draw away the heat faster than can be supplied by the source.

[chuck geiger]

Thanks

[chuck geiger]

And we are back with most of the track in on this side and turnouts laid out on other side. Runs great. Swapped
out ME turnouts for Atlas #7 and #5's. There was a big shortage of 7's. I will use the ME's for a non-operating
diorama down the line. Working on replacing ties on the C-40 and C-55. You get a crazy kink on the ME weathered
flex track that results in ties out of line. Just cutting them out and realigning. Thanks Ed - I ordered the rail joiner
sidekick. Using Atlas joiners way easier than ME joiners on both ME and Atlas track.

[wazzou]

I'm not a fan of the 4 piers supporting a 150' bridge.
Never seen it done but haven't seen everything either.
The railroad and era i model was littered with these 150' bridges and none of them had that configuration.

[nkalanaga]

I've never seen one like that either.  The whole purpose of a truss bridge is to avoid piers in the middle.

That said, they ARE in the right places, if one needed them at all.  Maybe the bridge was too weak for modern trains, and replacing it wasn't practical, for whatever reason?  This basically turns it into a series of short deck girder spans with the truss only having to support the intermediate crossbearers.

For something almost as weird, look at the BNSF/BN/GN Rock Island bridge just "east" of Wenatchee.  The old bridge was too weak, so they built a new one around it, without ever closing the railroad.  Both trusses are still there today.

[DKS]

I've never seen one like that either.  The whole purpose of a truss bridge is to avoid piers in the middle.

This.

I'd either lose the piers, or switch to 3 shorter plate girder deck spans.

[chuck geiger]

They are just sitting there, will pull. Always cool to hear the RW feedback.

[chuck geiger]

Ponderosa side of BNSF PONDEROSA SUB coming together.

[milw12]

Looking good Chuck! Really like that last picture.

-Lucas