Bridge Abutment Recommendations?


D

Dameon

Member
My wife gave me a some Micro Engineering Company's Bridge kits (HO scale) as a gift. Two Double Track Thru Grinder Bridge kits and two single track Deck Grinder Bridge kits, which I plan to use to make two double spans of the respective types.

Does anyone know who makes bridge abutments that these will fit? The Thru Grinder doesn't seam like it would be a problem, but the depth on the Deck Grinder could be an issue, due to the distance between the bridge shoes and the deck. I haven't seen any bridge abutments in HO scale that will fit that.

Suggestions?
 
You might consider making your own. Access to a small chop saw is all you need. A hand Zona saw can be used with a bit more effort.

I bought polar wood at OSH hardware and made my own abutments. It's a little harder wood than basswood. I used 1/4 inch thick sheetstock. All the wood to make this viaduct cost about 10 bucks. You can get the same wood at Michaels too.

It simultates poured concrete. Scribe the lines where the wood planks were built up to make the pouring forms.

I bought some hydrocal viaduct pieces, of stone, but found it too flimsy and some of the pieces were cracked in shipment. I'm glad I deceided to make my own since it doesn't look like everyone else's solution.
 
I "poured my own" as well, altho I used sheet styrene to represent concrete.
 
I've considered making my own but I really want a cut stone look, not poured concrete. I figured that may mean using some of those sheets of cut stone texture combined with sculpting my own cap and corner stone. I admit I'd rather just buy something pre-made.
 
Chooch makes a lot of cut stone stuff.

Chooch Enterprises

I haven't used their products, so I don't know how they'll match up with your new bridges.

For poured concrete:

Scale Segmental Bridge Co., but he's not taking orders until August. Email him, though, for Keith is a nice guy and was very helpful in my questions recently.
 
If you have any inch-thick extruded insulation styrofoam, you can make credible and fast piers and abutments out of that as well. With a light touch on a sharp hobby blade, you can make score marks that simulate the milled lumber used to make forms. Mix up craft paints to simulate aged concrete, and when it is dry, weather it and rust it up a bit.

IMG_4489csharadr.png


This was hastily done (I am impatient...!), but you are sure to produce a fine result in principle.

-Crandell
 
Thank-you, Charles. It stayed for two years as glassy clear and smooth two-part epoxy poured in two successive pours about 1/8" thick. It wasn't very realistic.

When I had grown tired of the clear flat and shiny look, I decided to go for broke. I had some left over, and thought to mix in some acrylic artist's paint, just a drop, and also to make it look a bit turbid by adding a pinch of Plaster of Paris powder. Small amounts...tiny in each case. When I mixed it all up, the epoxy got quite foamy, which was disconcerting. Nevertheless, I was going for broke...make it work or tear it out and do it right from scratch. I was happy to find that this last pour actually dried flat and glossy again, but with the general tint and turbidity that you see. In order to get rid of the flat look, I spread a thin layer of gel gloss medium (craft stores), and then, turning the foam brush on its side, I simple stippled the thin layer of the gel gloss medium. It now looks as you see it.

In about 3/4 cup total of the equal measures of resin and hardener in the epoxy kit I got in the finishes section, right with the paints at my local hardware store, I added maybe half a drop of "Hauder Medium Green", and perhaps 1/2 tsp of the Plaster powder. It seems like a lot, certainly when you are mixing it, and it looks terrible during the mix, but once you have it poured and then spread with a bamboo kabob skewer or whatever (yes, do move it around and spread it...it will level itself soon enough), the thinness of it all works nicely.

-Crandell
 
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