Colorado Midland in N scale 2.0

[MK]

Carpeting for MRR!   

[davefoxx]

And you thought cutting cork roadbed for turnouts was a pain in the butt! 

DFF

[Dave V]

I now posses in-hand the decals and the kit to do this car:

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It's from when the Midland Terminal (connecting with the Colorado Midland at Divide), the Colorado Springs & Cripple Creek District Railway (a.k.a. the Short line), and the Florence & Cripple Creek (the only narrow gauge of the three) pooled their resources in and around Cripple Creek and Victor to deconflict traffic and stabilize shipping rates.

The CS&CCD is a very interesting road...  I have a Colorado Rail Annual book on it.  It would make a great prototype to model as well.  Difficult in N due to its proclivity for tiny 2-6-2s, but the 2-6-0s they had were not altogether so terribly different than the MRC/MP offering with steam chests.  President Teddy Roosevelt, while riding a CS&CCD train up the south shoulder of Pikes Peak, called it a "trip that corrupts the English language."  Like the CMRy and the F&CC, the CS&CCD had gone for the eternal dirt nap by 1920.

The Midland Terminal, on the other hand, took the CMRy trackage from Divide to Colorado Springs as its own and operated it all the way until 1949 to give Cripple Creek and Victor gold an outlet to the Golden Cycle Mill at the foot of Pikes Peak in Old Colorado City.  The moving of the mill to Victor was the final death warrant for the MTRy.

[Dave V]

@Chris333 ,

When you model trestles in N scale, what sized lumber do you use for the bent posts?  I ordered a bunch of HO scale 6 x 6 (since that should be roughly 12 x 12 in N scale) but it seems a little flimsy.  FWIW after measuring the trestles on the existing Midland, the Monroe Models trestle appears to be something more like 3/32" or 16" posts in N scale.

Curious as to what you used or if I can get away with 6 x 6 HO posts in N.

[Chris333]

I haven't made many trestles in N scale, other than coal trestles. I made this a long time ago:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yYgmdurPzCXHUEzaA

Going off the ties I would say they are about 12x12 in N so 6x6 in HO should work.  Do you have any plans you could scale down to N?

[wazzou]

Nearly all pile caps are 14" square so most round piling is a minimum 12" tip allowing for 1"/10' of natural taper.
I would think if you're using square timber modeled after your prototype, 12" square would be appropriate.
Here is a bridge I built from measurements on a branchline I modeled that had 12" +/- tipped round pile and 12x12 square timber pile.

[Dave V]

I haven't made many trestles in N scale, other than coal trestles. I made this a long time ago:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yYgmdurPzCXHUEzaA

Going off the ties I would say they are about 12x12 in N so 6x6 in HO should work.  Do you have any plans you could scale down to N?

That's the one I was thinking of.

@wazzou That looks fantastic.  So the plan that @Missaberoad shared shows the Midland post and cap dimensions as 12 x 12.

So what I done did wuz start with Missaberoad's plan and scale it to N, then flesh out the bents according to what I could make out of photos from real Midland trestles like the Hagerman and the Dolomite trestles:

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Now this bent looks darned near HO scale, but dimensionally it's an exact match to the Midland plan for N scale.  The story height, bent cap width, etc. all work.  But...it made me reexamine the trestles I already have.  I realize now that my N scale trestles are more compressed than I thought they were.  Sure, they have beefier members (you're welcome @chicken45 ) but the story height and bent spacing is much smaller than they should be in scale.

I think what I might to is play with this template just a bit more.  I may bring the taper in a bit (although it does look like the taper on the Hagerman trestle to a T) and I may reduce the story height by 2 feet or so from, say 16' to 14', and compress the bent spacing accordingly.

[Chris333]

If you know someone with a filament 3D printer it would be easy to take that drawing and make a 3D printed jig. My resin printer is small and could probably only do the 2 top rows.

[Chris333]

And then a whole 3D trestle:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3321746

Would be better if it was just the bents though and install to suit.

[Dave V]

I kind of like how my trestles came out for the RGS using stained wood.  Building it isn’t actually that difficult… I just wanna make sure I can make it strong enough to survive shows. Once I get all the cross bracing on, it should be okay.

[Point353]

I kind of like how my trestles came out for the RGS using stained wood.  Building it isn’t actually that difficult… I just wanna make sure I can make it strong enough to survive shows. Once I get all the cross bracing on, it should be okay.

Would making the two vertical center posts out of square brass tubing - perhaps filled with spray foam insulation - help make the trestle stronger?

[Dave V]

Would making the two vertical center posts out of square brass tubing - perhaps filled with spray foam insulation - help make the trestle stronger?

Probably, but if the wood doesn't cut it, I could just use styrene and probably still get to the strength I need.  But as has been said many times, nothing looks as much like wood as wood.  And while I have no issue using styrene for wood in plenty of applications, I enjoy working with wood too.  So I'll build a few test bents and do a little "strength testing."  Might help if I have a belt or two of Scotch before said testing.

[Chris333]

Just beef up the benchwork under the trestle.

[MDW]

Probably, but if the wood doesn't cut it, I could just use styrene and probably still get to the strength I need.  But as has been said many times, nothing looks as much like wood as wood.  And while I have no issue using styrene for wood in plenty of applications, I enjoy working with wood too.  So I'll build a few test bents and do a little "strength testing."  Might help if I have a belt or two of Scotch before said testing.

Scotch.....always a great tool for the modeler!

[Rich_S]

Would you mind explaining what role the width of the railhead has to do with added strength?

That was a typo, should have said the entire rail is thicker than the Peco rail, which adds additional strength.