Hi there--I, too, am a refugee from the Atlas forum, which I found attached way too much importance to the number of posts and not enough to the content of those posts . I am also very glad to see that I can attach pictures without having to have a web-site, or mess around with Rail-Images. So----here is a picture of the operating drawbridge across the Nevawasa river on the Petaluma Valley RR. My layout actually goes around the walls and this is the entrance.
Drawbridge
- Thread starter momac
- Start date
Welcome to the Gauge momac.
The draw bridge is impressive. What is it made of?
Please post more photos of your layout.
The draw bridge is impressive. What is it made of?
Please post more photos of your layout.
Very nice Momac, and welcome home to the Gauge. You will find very friendly people here. And yes please post more pics. :thumb: JimThe drawbridge is built almost entirely of Plastruct. All bearings are steel pins in brass tubing. The hardest part in building was getting all the pivot points in the same plane, so it didn't bind. That, and I also had to figure out how one of these monsters functioned! This one works exactly as a real one. A small motor in the machinery house drives a shaft with pinion gears on each end, which run a rack on the operating arms. It's been functioning for approximately 8 years now, with very little maintenance. I think the main reason I built it, other than the fact it was a good solution for access, was that I had read in some Kalmbach book that no-one had ever built one that had worked for very long. I love a challenge!
Also posting some more pictures of the Petaluma Valley RR.
Angus Macdonald
Also posting some more pictures of the Petaluma Valley RR.
Angus Macdonald
Attachments
That is some fine modeling Momac, and congrats on proving everyone wrong on the operationg draw bridge. Keepem comin. 
F
Fred_M
You have a great talent for scenary!!! I really like that third picture in particular for the way the hills blend into the backdrop. Excellent! Your lift bridge is an engineering marvel. Nicely done! Yep, you start posting pics like that around here you're gonna have to post more!
Ralph
Ralph
I have to second Ralph on the backdrop. As the time is rapidly approching for that stage on my own layout I have been paying particular attention to that aspect on all of the pictures of other layouts. It's amazing how much range there is in the scenery, all the way from none at all to scenery that seems to go on forever and yours is definately among the later. Welcome to the Gauge and thanks for sharing your great pics. :thumb:
Welcome Angus (and all other Atlas refugees) Awesome bridge! And real nice layout. thanks for posting them.
Gary
Gary
Unfortunately, I can't take credit for most of the scenery. It's been a collaboration between myself, Brad Lloyd, Dave Connery, and Denise Showalter. She is the artist who has done the background paintings. I did all the track, bridges, yard, etc (The easy stuff, not requiring any artistic talent), and Brad and Dave have done the rest. And are still in the process of doing it. One of these days, I'll show you the rest of it.
Angus Macdonald
Angus Macdonald
That is one impressive bridge. Very well done. Do you have technical drawings or important dimensions if one of us wanted to build one?
Welcome to the Guage.
Mike
Welcome to the Guage.
Mike
Angus, welcome to the Gauge!
Apart from technical knowledge it take quite a heap of talent to construct the bridges you have! :thumb:
And congratulations - you four seem to be a really great team of modelers! Yep, show us more of your layout and a few more details of that superb drawbridge!
Ron
This must be the understatement of the month!
Apart from technical knowledge it take quite a heap of talent to construct the bridges you have! :thumb:
And congratulations - you four seem to be a really great team of modelers! Yep, show us more of your layout and a few more details of that superb drawbridge!
Ron
You know--I wish I did have drawings or specs, but I started with a 1/2 N-scale drawing of a drawbridge, scaled it up to HO, and just started building it. I checked girder sizes in the Plastruct catalog and ordered what I thought I needed. I think by the third re-order, I finally had everything. It's probably not exactly to scale, and it wouldn't please a rivet-counter (it doesn't have any!), but it's hell for stout. Plastruct now sells styrene materials that are more to scale with more prototypical dimensions, and I would use these, were I to do it again. I do plan on building a vertical lift bridge for the third bridge across this space, but that's off in the future.
I've attached a couple of pictures to help explain some of the features.
Angus Macdonald
I've attached a couple of pictures to help explain some of the features.
Angus Macdonald
Attachments
In B&MCR.R. country, we do mean, horrible, nasty things to rivet counters like, make them ride in a string of old-time passenger cars pulled by a U-50 and all painted in Auto-Train white, red and purple.
It is a beautiful bridge of the kind I've wanted to build but never had a place for it. Now that I'm doing more dioramas, I believe there will be one built in the near future.
It is a beautiful bridge of the kind I've wanted to build but never had a place for it. Now that I'm doing more dioramas, I believe there will be one built in the near future.
Angus,
That is one impressive bridge and layout, it is what alot of us dream of doing, mine is still the unscenicked, unfinished, undecided layout, but I still can run trains. It's nice to have friends who can fill the voids of the talents we lack, the backdrop blending is superb. Thanks for sharing.:thumb::thumb:
That is one impressive bridge and layout, it is what alot of us dream of doing, mine is still the unscenicked, unfinished, undecided layout, but I still can run trains. It's nice to have friends who can fill the voids of the talents we lack, the backdrop blending is superb. Thanks for sharing.:thumb::thumb: