Building an E&N curved steel viaduct

[Cajonpassfan]

Lol, too funny (unless you lose your footing, then it's not).
I love this protobased stuff, very nice! But it just illustrates how much more challenging it is to model real things and places, rather than just buying a generic plastic footer...
Nice going,
Otto

[craigolio1]

Lol, too funny (unless you lose you footing, then it's not).
I love this protobased stuff, very nice! But it just illustrates how much more challenging it is to model real things and places, rather than just buying a generic plastic footer...
Nice going,
Otto

Agreed! It’s so thrilling to find that perfect previously unknown photo or some bit of barely know history. And then making something recognizable. So much fun.

[Baronjutter]

Nice to find this thread.  I'm trying to build a bridge very much inspired by the same prototype and the ME viaduct fits almost perfectly.  Mine will be straight so that's way easier.  hard to find the kits these days!  Yours is looking great, so sad about the previous warping disaster.

[craigolio1]

@craigolio1 has major cojones to lean out over the ties for those straight-down pictures !!!

My sister just sent me this. I didn’t realize she was taking photos. Haha.

[craigolio1]

Nice to find this thread.  I'm trying to build a bridge very much inspired by the same prototype and the ME viaduct fits almost perfectly.  Mine will be straight so that's way easier.  hard to find the kits these days!  Yours is looking great, so sad about the previous warping disaster.

Thank you! Yes it was a let down for sure but kind of a happy accident. Taking it back a few steps has allowed me to do a few things better…. For example I’ve now seen that the curve has some super elevation and I was able to measure that so I can add it.

Craig.

[Baronjutter]

I got so inspired I bought this same kit!  Actually found one!

[MK]

My sister just sent me this. I didn’t realize she was taking photos. Haha.

Mike

You're a brave  .  I get goosebumps looking at that picture!

[craigolio1]

Mike

You're a brave  .  I get goosebumps looking at that picture!

I had an uneasy feeling for sure. It’s about 200ft to the bottom. I made sure to walk in the middle. At least it’s been unused for at least ten years. No chance of a Stand By Me incident.

[craigolio1]

Things are moving along! Yesterday I cast a few more footings….





And today I got to work on laying track.

First I scraped the old epoxy and paint off the bottoms of the rails and gave them a sand. Then I glued the Central Valley ties back on to the girders. This time though I only glued down the inside of the curve so that I could add superelevation later.

After some discussion with @CNR5529 , and the prior incident of the rail popping off, we decided it would be wise to solder the rails to PCB ties.

The PCB ties are not the right thickness for bridge ties. I fixed this by gluing them to pieces of .060 x .030 styrene.



I had previously removed ties from the CV strips. These ones slid in easily…



A little drop of CA on one side of the rail…



And then slide it in and centre it….



This time around I also made sure to add timbres to hold up the barrel platforms…



With all of the ties in place I got work soldering the rails on. Only 32 solder joints need to be perfect without melting anything!



I soldered all of the rails down one side and then used the same plastic track gauges I made to hold the rails in gauge and then soldered then other side, and it was done! No melted ties.





The next step was to add some super-elevation. On the prototype I measured about 7”. I used some .030 x .060 and .010 x .060 styrene.



With that in place the last step for the night was to give it a bath to wash all of the flux off.  Next I’ll paint ties and any exposed styrene black. I made an attempt to weather the ties before but they had red oxide over spray on them and I don’t like the hue it makes so I’m starting again from black.

Craig

[Baronjutter]

Looking really good!  I think you previous rust method was a little more red compared to the real thing, which seems mostly dirty with a bit of rust under the dirt.

[peteski]

Craig, the PCB ties will help to keep the rail down, but I wonder if it would be wise to add some expansion joints by cutting the rails and keeping them aligned by using either adjacent PCB ties or just rail joiners?  Better now then after the bridge is finishes and installed.

I remember on friend's layout (located in a heated and air conditioned room), some rail popped up on a curve few years after the track was laid.

[craigolio1]

Craig, the PCB ties will help to keep the rail down, but I wonder if it would be wise to add some expansion joints by cutting the rails and keeping them aligned by using either adjacent PCB ties or just rail joiners?  Better now then after the bridge is finishes and installed.

I remember on friend's layout (located in a heated and air conditioned room), some rail popped up on a curve few years after the track was laid.

This bridge is shorter than a piece of flex track. And it’s soldered about every 1.5”. If an expansion gap were made, wouldnt any other span between solder joints with no gap be trapped with no ability to expand? I don’t feel like adding feeders to the middle of the bridge.

Edit: also not that expansion won’t occur, but the last rail pop was caused by the bridge warping when my paint attacked it.

[peteski]

This bridge is shorter than a piece of flex track. And it’s soldered about every 1.5”. If an expansion gap were made, wouldnt any other span between solder joints with no gap be trapped with no ability to expand? I don’t feel like adding feeders to the middle of the bridge.

Edit: also not that expansion won’t occur, but the last rail pop was caused by the bridge warping when my paint attacked it.

 I didn't read the entire thread. I thought the viaduct was longer.

[Cajonpassfan]

This is very cool, Craig, loving it. But 7" superelevation on the prototype? Wow
Following with interest,
Otto

[craigolio1]

This is very cool, Craig, loving it. But 7" superelevation on the prototype? Wow
Following with interest,
Otto

Is that a lot? It’s what I measured. 

Managed to get all of the foundations cast this week!



Craig