curved stone viaduct


Maxi, before this gets any worse and you destroy your bridge, why not peel all that clay off of there and use the foam you've got the bridge sitting on to cover the cardboard? Just cut it to size, glue it on with regular white glue, and then paint and weather to look like concrete.
 
Hmmm I was planning to do a stone bridge actually, more then a concrete one, I donno if they used to build concrete bridges in the 40's, and actually I think a stone bridgew would look much better as detail then concrete.
 
Maxi, they built stone bridges in the 1840's. Any bridge built in the 1940's was built of concrete. If you want to have an older stone viaduct, get some embossed stone styrene sheets and use that. If you keep applying more clay to that viaduct, the cardboard's going to start delaminating and all your hard work will be for nothng.
 
If you can't find the stone styrene sheets, you can also try carving your own rocks using foam. I did something similar in the footings for the girder bridge in the foreground. I bought two blocks of florists foam (almost any hard fine graded foam will work, except beaded styrofoam) and cut/scraped grooves to make large rough blocks, like cut from a quarry, using a knife blade and small screw driver tip. I couple of thick coats of latex paint sealed the foam air pockets, leaving a surface very much like stones. You could either cover your cardboard base (if it is salvageable) or rebuild the entire viadfuct from the foam.
Doc.
 
You can order stone styrene sheets from any of the big European companies like Faller and Heljan. In the US, just check the Walther's on-line catalog. There are many makers of embossed styrene sheets. Are there any craft type stores in Malta? If so, they may cater to people who build things like dollhouses and embossed plastic sheets might be available there.
 
Bridge with switch

Just to let you know Doc. In Pawling, New York there's a wooden bridge with a switch on it just like the one in your photo. They say it was built in 1920. It's still there but now the people at Pawling Rubber Corp. use it as a lunch terrace.

NYC_George
 
Looks nice Jos, it wouldn't have been a problem for me if it was a straight one, but the challenge is the curviture, I have made one long time ago, all from plaster and carved the stone tecture on it, but it was straight, so when I made the plaster mould it was not hard, but to make a curved plaster mould you need alot of work. That's why I came up with the carton ply, which is much easier to shape, but then I had to think about something for the texture, since the embossed styrene sheets were not available.


Here's the bridge I made some time ago

Bridge_1_sm.jpg
 
polygonal??

Hi Maxitrains,

Why don't you try to make a "polygonal" bridge... I mean a bridge that is made out of straigt parts and these parts together makes it a curviture.
add a sketch( some kind...)

jos
 
Well cause I don't think that such bridges ever existed in real life. In a way or another I will finish this project, or else I won't call myself Maxitrains any more :p
 
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Maxi, you could try the cardboard sheets with a rock pattern on them.
I can't remember who makes it at this time, but it sure would be easy to add to your form.
 
I can also make th printing liek I did with the styrene warehouse, but when there's an embosed texture, even the lighting makes its effect on it, that's why I want some carved or embosed stone. But all the ideas so far are very helpful.

Thanks
 
NYC_George said:
Just to let you know Doc. In Pawling, New York there's a wooden bridge with a switch on it just like the one in your photo. They say it was built in 1920. It's still there but now the people at Pawling Rubber Corp. use it as a lunch terrace.
NYC_George
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. You don't happen to have a picture of it do you? I tried to find a prototype when I made mine but came up empty.
Doc
 
Switch bridge

The next time I visit my mother I'll bring my camera. I think I took my wife to see it about 10 years ago. As a kid I fished under it. I think it's still there. It was used as part of a Y to turn steam engines. There was no turn table in Pawling. The bridge was in the shape of the switch.

NYC_George
 
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