I’m not sure if it’s actually called a steel viaduct…. But that’s what the Micro Engineering box says so I went with it.
This bridge is a representation of the steel bridge crossing of the Esquimalt and Nanaimo’s Arbutus Canyon on Vancouver Island.
The model is based on Micro Engineering and Atlas parts. It’s slightly smaller than the prototype but as close as I could get without scratch building the whole thing.
I started by drawing a template of the bridge using ME and Atlas girders to figure out just how long it would be, and I built the module around that template, including building a wood standin to use during construction.
Next using the template I laid out and build the plate girder sections, ensuring along the way that they matched the radius and fit of the wood stand in.
Once I had the shape of it configured I glued the towers on.
For track I had originally planned to use ME bridge flex track, but there where a couple of things that made me decide not to. For one I widened the bridge a touch to accommodate the curve, so once the flex was bent to fit the curve not all of the ties reached the sides completely and being flex track they weren’t perpendicular to the girders either. Finally thr ties have a square profile and my prototype are 9” wide and 16” tall. So I thought briefly about hand laying the track. Buuuut decided it would be a colossal PITA. While rummaging in my supplies one day I found a stock pile of Central Valley bridge parts that I had procured for another project and wouldn’t you know it, they were the perfect width and profile, and by cutting through one side of the guard rails I was able to “curve” them to match the bridge.
Once fit, the ties were glued on upside down and weighted to keep them flat. I also pre cut single ties to fill in the gaps and sanded off the cast spikes on the curves section since the rails won’t be centred there.
The next step was to attach the rails. I thought hard about this as I’ve never built a curved bridge before. I wanted to use epoxy to glue the rails on. The rails don’t follow a centre line or simetrical pattern since I built this bridge by eye.
When you look at the prototype you can see that the rails move from one side of the straight girder sections to the other as the curve across the bridge.
The method I thought of was to make a whole pile of styrene track gauges to hold the gauge in the curve while I moved the rails around so I could get the exact position I wanted. I made them by taking a small piece of C55 track and roughing up the rails with a file and a razor saw, essentially turning it into an N gauge file. I rubbed squares of .050 styrene on the rails until they bumped on the spike heads and voila….. many many track gauges.
I pre-bent the rails a bit and lay them on the bridge deck. Then a napped on a pile of the plastic gauges and made final adjustments to the rail positions with tooth picks stuck between the ties. I held this all in place with thin strips of medical tape.
Next I shot a lite coat of primer in the bridge deck so that when I removed the rails I could see exactly where to put epoxy.
Next I put tiny strips of epoxy on these spots, lifted the rails into position and re attached all the track gauges. (I also roughed you the bottoms of the rails with a file).
The epoxy I used is JB Weld. I chose it because it’s dark grey, holds like crazy and as it turns out has a really long working time.
I held the whole thing down with tape again and that where it’s at now.
