Ideas for curved bridge


J

joed2323

Member
Im modeling modern day so a trestle type bridge will not work for me. I cant find any curved bridges to buy that are not trestles so im guessing i will have to scratch build this bridge that will go over a river on my layout.

Does anyone have any good ideas or suggestions (pictures are nice) on what might be the best way to do this or what i should use? Does anyone have a curved bridge on your layout thats not a trestle ? Im guessing it will have to look like concrete or maybe a plate girder style? I know i can buy plate girders that i probably can curve. Maybe i can make it out of wood and shape it to look like concrete and paint it concrete color?

Thanks guys, please point me to the right direction on how i should do this? btw-this is ho scale if it matters
 
awesome larry! Thats a very cool scene...

Please tell me how and what materials you used on this, some of the materials look familiar...

I actually have 2 tracks side by side like that on a different corner that i was looking at putting a bridge on but i just wasnt sure how to do it properly.
 
joed2323 said:
awesome larry! Thats a very cool scene...

Please tell me how and what materials you used on this, some of the materials look familiar...

I actually have 2 tracks side by side like that on a different corner that i was looking at putting a bridge on but i just wasnt sure how to do it properly.
Click to expand...

Look in my Blog & there's a whole topic in there about this bridge & another one I made out of Plywood. The Plywood one you could also make in a curve.
It's a shame you don't live around here close I could help you make all kinds of stuff out of found objects. :D
 
???Curved Railroad Bridges???

The reason you don't see any curved railroad bridges is that there were few, if any in real life. The so called "curved" trestle is really just a lot of straight bridges, each about 15 feet long. Most modern steel bridges would be a series of straight girders or trusses, the length determined by the strength of the steel. Modern curved highway bridges are cast with a very large section to resist the torsional stresses of the traffic load being outside the supporting structure.
As a retired mechanical engineer I wouldn't use one on my layout just because it would really bug me. But model railroading is a hobby and should be fun. I do a lot of things that rivet counters would scream at.
Don't want to rain on your parade, just wanted to put the reasons forward. I just joined On30, the funner gauge and am running two of the "Mint" offerings. I like them because they are colorful. Our group goes to assisted living homes from time to time and they enjoy seeing "pretty" and "cute" engines and cars, and to tell the truth, so do I.

Armchair

armchairmodeling.blogspot.com
 
This is a cheap bridge on our clubs layout. Made of styrofoam and curved easily. The stone work was created by old pencils with the erasers removed and bent slightly (like chewed to deform round shape) and pressed into foam before stained and painted. Work by Josh Zinn. It represents a local stone arch bridge on the PRR.
 
joed2323 said:
Yes its a shame. I could use alot of useful pointers from you...
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Just keep up to date w/my Blog because that's where I put all of my real good idea's(at least "I" think they're good idea's)on there w/lots of photo's.
I have so many things on my brain at nite it's hard to go to sleep.
Have you looked at the Vehicle bridge that I made out of Old Slot Car track & Electrical conduit?
I've been thinking about a new & improved manual operated control for turnouts that I've got to get busy & build because I need them for about 15 switches I can't get to by hand. It's been on my mind for about a year.
(OOps said something about the mind again-no sleep tonite):rolleyes:
 
As armchair noted, curved plate girder bridges are not likely to be found on the prototype. They are a series of straight sections set at appropriate angles and joined together. Way too expensive to make the plates themselves curved.

A stone arch bridge could be curved, like a trestle. And, both curved trestles and stone bridges could survive into modern days, so I don't know if you have to exclude them for modernity reasons, although you're probably going for a certain look to the layout.
 
I have a straight Bridge that I sprayed w/Stone Paint in a Rattle can & all my visitors think it's real stone. This one is made out of 1/2" 4 ply CDX w/a lot of structure built in as seen on my Blog.
You could make a curved bridge out of 1/4" plywood & curve it to fit a side form cut out on a bandsaw of 1/2" plywood. You would have to add some structure inside to hold the shape & it would look like some of the european bridges you see on RailPictures.net.
 
If you look there is a prototype for pretty much everything, including curved plate girders:
http://g.co/maps/ympza

It might not common, but there is often at least one exception to every rule.
 
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In the May issue of MR you'll find a "curved" bridge made with straight sections of girder.
I've seen one similar to what Paul shows but not as pronounced of a curve.
Good find Paul!
 
This late summer I was thinking about adding another Tall bridge to my layout & making it out of curved plywood. I just need to buckle down & do it w/all the other pressing projects. I have a Bridge Book that I use quite often & a lot of copying off of RailPictures.net.
 
kjd said:
If you look there is a prototype for pretty much everything, including curved plate girders:
http://g.co/maps/ympza

It might not common, but there is often at least one exception to every rule.
Click to expand...

That bridge works only because of the center pier. A single-span curved bridge creates large torsional stresses (twisting) in the steel plate girders. The additional steel required and odd support conditions needed to resist the twisting effect quickly make the bridge uneconomical (very very expensive). The rule of thumb with most framed structures is "straight good, curve bad."

And yes, as a matter of fact, I am a structural engineer.
 
after doing some research around where i live, i found quite a few wooden trestle bridges that i thought were quite extinct for modern day, shows how much i know, thats why i was saying i didnt want to do a curved wooden trestle because i thought alot of them are gone.

Heres a straight bridge i found about 15 mins from me and i found another one crossing a river, i will get pictures of the one crossing the river, that one is pretty cool

Is this bridge considered a trestle type bridge? im no bridge expert, sorry.
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Rico i must of looked through the may issue 20 times. Funny i didnt notice the curved bridge they did on the virginian. That looks like what i should do. Thanks rico for bringing it to my attention
 
When I worked in Charleston, WV in 1988 there was a huge curved Trestle that went from the main steel bridge over the river down into the Warehouse district. I took connected pictures of it from the Interstate when I left there in Dec. Someplace over time I have misplaced that picture.
maybe someone could bring it up on an Aerial map if it's still there.
 
Curved RR Bridge in Baltimore, MD

I know of yet another curved girder twin-track RR bridge: CSX in Baltimore, at the north end of the Howard Street Tunnel. I couldn't figure out how to save the exact location in a URL, but go to Googlemaps.com and type in the search address: 1848 Falls Rd., Baltimore, MD. Then click the magnifying-glass button and that will take you right to it.
 
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