Wednesday, January 22, 2025

 The Millville Build -Part Three

This is the third and final installment of my rebuild of the river setting with Robinson's Electric adjacent Millville. In this part I finish the river scene and do a change-up with the bridge. 

In the pic below I've finished the stone work on the embankments, added more rockwork to the river and put in more pools to catch the water flowing down the river. Total drop is about 8 inches.

   

 
More falls are added.

 
 
...and another view 

 
The original bridge is tested on the existing supports...


Fooling with my laser, maybe try something new...?


I take the original Pratt Truss  bridge (cut down Central Valley) and flip it upside down….
 
 
I want a longer bridge so need  to think outside the box - I first remove the original supports.
 
 
Supports are removed. Note original location. New supports will be further up the embankments.
 
 
I had been exploring other ideas doing simple mock ups in my laser. This leads to the deck truss shown  at the bottom (of the above photo), but first I test the new supports on my computer using Photoshop (see two photos below). Compared to the original Pratt truss, I gain about 3” in distance between supports.
 
 
 


This is the final mock up ready for installation. At this point I have decided make this bridge functional but not permanent. I will be able to run trains, it will look acceptable and I can enjoy building the final when I have more time. In addition to constructing the bridge from laser board and strip wood, the supports are photo paper (made from one of my rock walls) glued over chipboard. Hard to tell from actual castings. It will be in place for several months.

Below we have the final results. I've completed the deck using a local deck truss RR bridge as a guide - actually a single track version of the bridge after the Hoosac Tunnel East Portal.
 

 
 
Last, below are a couple prototype bridges which will be my guides for the final build using available injection molded bridge girders.

 
The Cuttingsville bridge near Ludlow VT. 


The Erie Canal Railroad bridge in Lockport, NY.



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