Gary Pfeil's scratchbuild

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
I'm in! I actually started this a couple months ago, but have a ways to go. I have to disguise where my west end main line goes thru a wall to staging in another room. The stairs to the basement start down over the far end of the room. I decided to model the NE corridor asa dummy scene. Here is a picture of early stage progress. I've purchased the catenary towers and am checking placement.
 

Attachments

  • necor1.jpg
    necor1.jpg
    56.9 KB · Views: 414

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
And this photo of the CNJ being crossed by the Pennsys corridor was the inspiration for the scene.
 

Attachments

  • necor2a.jpg
    necor2a.jpg
    59.2 KB · Views: 406

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
I became concerned that where the corridor tracks hit the backdrop was going to be impossible to make look ok. It was suggested that the busyness of a truss bridge replacing the concrete deck bridge would help disguise this. So I took the superstructure of a CV bridge I built for another location and used it to see how it would look. It would need to be shorter and skewed, but I thought it was a good idea. Here is the mockup.
 

Attachments

  • necor5a.jpg
    necor5a.jpg
    67.2 KB · Views: 408

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
So I built a quick mockup prior to committing myself out of strip styrene to the size I would need.
 

Attachments

  • necor15.jpg
    necor15.jpg
    64.2 KB · Views: 406

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
And here is one of the trusses (?) I made molds from leftover CV bridge kit parts for the splice plates so I could cast a bunch. I was going to make four of these, to make two double track bridges. I wound up only making three, and using the one in the center for both bridges. Not at all sure if this is kosher, but was being lazy!
 

Attachments

  • necor18.jpg
    necor18.jpg
    50.4 KB · Views: 393

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
I did a lot of test fitting. Basically this was in substitution for knowing what to do! This is how things were shaping up.
 

Attachments

  • necor25.jpg
    necor25.jpg
    64.6 KB · Views: 392

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
It was time to glue rail down on the ties. I used Barge cement thinned with Ambroids Pro Weld and applied it to the bottom of the rail with wooden q tips. I was starting to like the results.
 

Attachments

  • necor26a.jpg
    necor26a.jpg
    63.9 KB · Views: 393

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
I had of course attached the deck of the bridge to the roadbed for the adjoining section, using epoxy. The whole deal needs to be removable for access to the turnouts beneath it. It was time to measure out where the catenary bridges would be in relation to the truss bridges. This is the scene on the workbench as I tested fit.
 

Attachments

  • necor33a.jpg
    necor33a.jpg
    62.3 KB · Views: 379

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
This shot shows the guard rails have been installed, and I've modified the catenary bridge to fit within the truss bridge.
 

Attachments

  • necor36a.jpg
    necor36a.jpg
    66.1 KB · Views: 400

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
This photo shows one catenary bridge built as intended, and the one I modified to fit into the bridge.
 

Attachments

  • necor42a.jpg
    necor42a.jpg
    43.4 KB · Views: 367

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
Now I've added rivit detail to the bridge frame, and I've started making castings of the stone wall. I needed 10 of these wall sections so elected to buy just one and make plaster copies. You can also see the rail joint bars glued on the flex track. Oh, I used n scale cork roadbed on top of homasote, on top of plywood. I placed the corks edges where they needed to be and filled in the center gap with spackle.
 

Attachments

  • necor44a.jpg
    necor44a.jpg
    65.8 KB · Views: 369

cnw1961

Member
Very well done, can’t wait to see your finished NE corridor. How did you do the rivets on the bridge frame?
 

jim currie

Active Member
look's good gary wish i had know that CV made the girders the last truss i built i had to make my own girders what a job
 

eightyeightfan1

Now I'm AMP'd
Welcome to the battle.
Got a great start. Whats up next?
I have a question though. Not being a traction fan..Wouldn't they have hung the cantanary on the top crossmembers? Instead of having a seperate cantanary bridge?
 

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
Thanks folks. Kurt, a friend and fellow modeler gave me some sprues of material that he in turn had received from another modeler, a custom builder I believe. He was closing up shop and gave Jim a lot of material, which I used some of here. Most of the material was in a scale too large for HO use. There were several lengths of angle with rivets which I used top and bottom of the main girder. Also, on a sheet there were rivit patterns for various configurations of rivets, one of which I chose for use around each of the crossmembers. So, sorry, but I have no new easy way to add rivets!

88, I have no idea! The skew and length of the bridge allowed use of that catenary bridge clear of the frontmost and rearmost trusses, going thru the center of the middle one. A photo of that will come along. I did use the truss bridge top members to hang insulators to support the catenary itself as well, as I needed to support the ends near the backdrop where there is no catenary bridge, just a post in the front, just clearing the backdrop. Again, future photos will show what I mean.

This photo shows I've attached the catenary to the bridges. What an ordeal! I started by soldering but had a lot of trouble with it, not being able to get nice clean joints. It was difficult to keep the parts together while soldering, and I also was having trouble with solder flow. I've never been great at sodering, but this was particularly difficult. So, since this is a static model which will never see operation, I simply super glued the parts together. I now have great admiration for those who build working catenary!
 

Attachments

  • necor47a.jpg
    necor47a.jpg
    66.2 KB · Views: 195
Top