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North Coast Railroad
Guest
Howdy, I live in an area with alot of old flat cars being used as bridges for cars over streams and ditches. These are quite frequent around here and I would love to model these on my layout, does any one have any photos of their attempts at this? I would love to see them.
Are you in or around Texas?
I sold some flats to some fellows who were making bridges from them down around there.
Funny, I never did get pics of the finished product... would love to see some!
North Coast Railroad
Guest
No, I am in Northwestern California. Back in the day the logging companies would use them alot.
There's been quite a few articles in Model Railroader & MRC about Flat Cars for bridges over the years. Many years ago (1978 to 1988) I built a few bridges out of large Cypress tree's & one year the owner of the property I was doing all of this work for bought 2 long flat cars to build a wide bridge to cross a deep creek. He never could get anyone to bring a crane to that area to lift them into place. So, they sat in heavy brush & sometimes in water & almost rust away.
North Coast Railroad
Guest
There's been quite a few articles in Model Railroader & MRC about Flat Cars for bridges over the years. Many years ago (1978 to 1988) I built a few bridges out of large Cypress tree's & one year the owner of the property I was doing all of this work for bought 2 long flat cars to build a wide bridge to cross a deep creek. He never could get anyone to bring a crane to that area to lift them into place. So, they sat in heavy brush & sometimes in water & almost rust away.
The Logging roads I work on have no shortage whatsoever of heavy equipment, alot of these bridges were placed half a century ago. My current job is to remove them and decommission these old logging roads. I see alot of them, and havent seen them modeled. The time frame you mentioned for the articles...well, I was between age 2 and 10, so I missed them!
Are you in or around Texas?
I sold some flats to some fellows who were making bridges from them down around there.
Funny, I never did get pics of the finished product... would love to see some!
No, I am in Northwestern California. Back in the day the logging companies would use them alot.
Would be nice if you listed your location in the user cp.
North Coast Railroad
Guest
Would be nice if you listed your location in the user cp.
I am in Crannell CA, population 9, go look for it on google maps. Thanks for the constructive addition to the thread. I guess you dont have any flat car bridges on your layout?
LOL, I actually know where Crannell is. PG&E has a mothballed nuke plant at Humbolt Bay that I used to have to visit occasionally when I was still working, and I spent some time prowling around the woods looking for old logging grades.
To answer your original question, I've rarely seen flatcars used as bridges on model railroads, even though old TTX flats are commonly seen in real life. I don't know why, but I suspect most modelers like to build more spectacular or interesting bridges, and an old TTX flat is neither of those.
Being from California, I guessed about where you were, but putting your location in your User CP, as I have, really is a good idea, since it helps place some questions in context.
I actually saw a place that advertised flatcars (older 86' TTX to be exact) to be used as bridges. They had at least 6-8 of them stacked neatly on their property outside Seguin (seh-GEEN) Tx several years back. A sign out front said: "Steel bridges for sale". They're all gone now, either as bridges somewhere in the S.Texas wilderness or off to Mexico as razor blade fodder, or perhaps they simply rusted away in place......
`Thanks for the pics, Brad.
Now, I recall seeing these bridges as automotive access to remote cabins in Washington and Montana.
Nice pics... anyone ever see an old stock car used as a covered bridge?
There's one on 75 hwy in MN just South of that "imaginary line" that keeps the real beer up North.
Howdy, I live in an area with alot of old flat cars being used as bridges for cars over streams and ditches. These are quite frequent around here and I would love to model these on my layout, does any one have any photos of their attempts at this? I would love to see them.
Go to Google and go to images and then type in Flat car bridges and you will get a lot of pictures of them.
I've seen a photo in an old model railroader of a really old UTLX tank car turned into a culvert, and one of my Algoma Central books has a photo of a loading ramp made using a pair of old 55-ton hoppers.
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