Building the Walthers Double Track Swing Bridge

[TLOC]

I have taken on a couple projects for a friend. One that I will document here is I am going to build the Swing Bridge for him. It will swing manually but where the bridge sits on the layout, it’s too dangerous to motorize it to swing. Some of it would swing into an aisle

10/7 I brought the kit home from a work session at the layout. I went online and read the instructions. Typical of Walthers but not the clearest of instructions with just enough wording to cause trouble. But I have learned over the years is when dealing with av Walthers kit, read the instructions, inventory the parts BUT BUT do not cut them off the sprue until needed.

That happened this morning. Starting with the girders I cut them off the sprue, trimmed them up and gave them a light sanding. I am following the directions and check off each part as I work it

The kit

The bag of parts

The spruces. I do check the inventory of parts against the instructions

Inventory checked out but there are parts on the spruces without part numbers. Not terribly unusual for a Walthers kit but aggravating. The parts with the missing numbers I was able to match up

I am almost ready to trim the pieces of the sprue. I do use sprue cutters but also #11. The Cinnamon gummies are ready, Exacto knifes and extra blades along with Xuron cutters are ready

Here I cut off and laid out the girder parts. After very little trimming and some light sanding I dry fitted the girders and cross braces

I make sure the part has the # penciled on it some where. Walthers sometimes gives you a sequence of numbers to fit in order but not on this kit. They did show the 3 different number cross braces in position though, that was helpful

Sometimes parts that recently were glue tend to buckle or warp. Weight generally allieves that issue. Some 1-2-3 blocks and soda cans prevent that here

I’m happy as the girders are not warped and lay flat

 

[TLOC]

This build event I am also posting on my FB page. The questions received so far…

Adhesives: I use Tamiya Extra Thin Cement in the green bottle. I have found that other than MEK that I used to use this works best for me. It has a slight smell but easily pushed away with a computer fan I have on my bench. CA has never been successful for me and whatever material Walthers uses in these kits

Paint: I generally do not paint Walthers kits. I will fade and weather them but only after they are assembled. HOWEVER, if there are windows in a kit I will spray paint them while still on the sprue

Why wait to cut parts off the sprue: This is just a me thing. I’ve put together way more Walthers kits then I want to think about. I built kits, weathered and sold them long before I started weathering freight cars and diesels. I find the instructions and part # identifiers in Walthers kits to be iffy. For me it helps eliminate confusion. YMMV!

Do you clean the kitchen parts: No but I used to. I used to clean in a dishwasher soap and warm water tub. Somewhere along the way I decided the clean up was unnecessary. This kit was very clean with no extrusion fluids that I noticed

Be well

 

[TLOC]

The girders are assembled, glued and dried flat! On to the trusses

Walthers instructions and sprue numbers suck. Part numbers 14 and 15 were not etched into the sprue. But dry fitting the parts got them correctly together

Just follow the kit instruction sequence, dry fit, and make sure everything is square or level. Then glue

This side of the trusses would not lay flat as it had a bit of warpage. With glue. Clamps and weight it got straighten out

The fan powered by a 9v battery is enough to keep me from breathing in any fumes of which there is very little

The trusses need some parts added to tie it together. You can see the part numbers to be added #25, 26 and 27. They are cut out and waiting for install. I am on the front porch again gathering in some crispy fresh air

The picture above shows the bridge pieces just sitting on the layout. Next up I believe are the cross bracing across the top of the trusses and gluing to the girders. Actual time spent at the bench today is about 5 hours split into 3 segments. Back either after supper or after breakfast tomorrow

Have a great late afternoon

 

[TLOC]

I’m back. The house is quiet and I ate an early dinner. So there’s for some work at the bench

Above. I added the top tie bars between the truss segments

I figured the next part would be the top braces and girders to join the trusses together but the instructions tell it differently. The motor compartment, the base and the bumper work to angle a boat away from damaging the bridge itself. I cut them off the sprue, labeled them and stopped

Tomorrow is another day

IMPRESSIONS

I have not put a straight Walthers kit together in a few years per the instruction sheet. Kit bashed a bunch for friends and a few clients though. Not much has changed. If you have not figured it out I dislike Walthers instructions or actually how terribly written they are. The sprues in this kit have the spot where the part # should be but it often is not. Basically I took my time, marked each piece with the part number, took it off the sprue, trimmed it, sanded it and dry fitted it. It went much quicker than I thought and I was taking my time.

Even though this will not be motorized, it will be made to manually operate. I will add the electricals that are included in case the owner down the way decides he wants it to electrically operate

 

[traiNscale]

thnx for the build thread @TLOC i soon also have to build a walthers Bridge ahahaha.
can i ask, whats your facebook page is? so i can follow you also there

cheers
Marco

 

[TLOC]

thnx for the build thread @TLOC i soon also have to build a walthers Bridge ahahaha.
can i ask, whats your facebook page is? so i can follow you also there

cheers
Marco

Wisconsin River Valley and Terminal Railroad in HO scale is my FB page. I post my weathering and layout projects there.

 

[TLOC]

Let’s go to the bench. New blades in the Exacto knives, Cinnamon gummies are out, the sanding sticks/blocks are ready and the glue is in the bottle

I had cut off the spruces the parts for the base of the bridge yesterday. Today I lightly sanded the pieces before gluing everything according to the instruction sheet. The base contains the gears that allow the bridge to move. It wasn’t worth showing but they are in there and rotate freely. Those are on the left front edge of the bench. Then I put the bridge abutments together ( the 1-2-3 blocks are sitting on them). Then I knocked over the bottle of glue as I was putting the brush back! Let’s just say, Terry does not smell very well. Almost immediately she asked what I did. Oh well!

Everything is drying. Next up after lunch is the bracing for the truss part of the bridge and adding that assembly to the girders. Not quite following the instruction sequence but adding the bridge trackage should not be a big deal

Till next time

 

[TLOC]

Back at it!

Dry fitting the trusses to the girders. A couple minor issues but fixed. Basically a small trim and sand to fit. Not sure if it was my problem I caused or the part when extruded wasn’t quite right. Just a fitting/positioning slot was off but the rest of the girder fit everywhere it should have

The above picture has the fitted cemented trusses attached to the girders on one side. I then put the main base support in place and fitted the assembly to it. If I were to do another swing bridge I would do it my way not per the instructions as I did. Nowhere does it say to glue the center girders to the base assembly. But there is no way just a press fit would hold the bridge assembly to the base

Everything is drying and I’ve already line up the truss to girders and all the fitting positioning slots lined up. Not sure if before supper I will get back at it.

The FB page has asked about the color and how it will be weathered. GN supposedly kept the mainline bridges in good shape and used silver as the bridge color. Well to me it’s got to have some rust but that truly is up to the owner. Here are a couple pictures, I found this 1 over the Lake Washington Canal

the owner this one

I like both but he will continue to look and make a decision. They both have some brighter coloring but both are rusted. Neither to my eye say the original color was silver

Later

 

[santafewillie]

You've been right on the mark with your observations regarding the Walther's instructions. Something I've been pointing out for years. I even had an E-Mail exchange with Phil in the late-90's about it, but things didn't change.

 

[TLOC]

You've been right on the mark with your observations regarding the Walther's instructions. Something I've been pointing out for years. I even had an E-Mail exchange with Phil in the late-90's about it, but things didn't change.

I’ve done hundreds of straight out of the box builds using Walthers kits. People in the 1990’s and up to about 2008 when I slowed it down were lazy! The one kit I will absolutely refuse to do again is the Ore dock. I did 3 that were roughly 8’ long which means adding kits on. Purchased all at the same time by the owner and the instructions in 3 of the kits were different than the other kits. All were a nightmare. You couldn’t pay me enough to build another one of those. Another was the Cooling towers for the Ethanol part. I still can’t figure out how the louvers on the side walls fit. Almost as bad was the Chemical plant by Plasticstuc?

Besides the instructions the mould lines on many kits are atrocious.

I talked to Stacy Walthers-??? a few years ago at Trainfest and while sympathetic she basically blew me off. The kits still sell. They are basically though the only game in town when it comes to kits that are not craftsman level

 

[ctclibby]

Back at it!
View attachment 243516
View attachment 243517
Dry fitting the trusses to the girders. A couple minor issues but fixed. Basically a small trim and sand to fit. Not sure if it was my problem I caused or the part when extruded wasn’t quite right. Just a fitting/positioning slot was off but the rest of the girder fit everywhere it should haveView attachment 243518
The above picture has the fitted cemented trusses attached to the girders on one side. I then put the main base support in place and fitted the assembly to it. If I were to do another swing bridge I would do it my way not per the instructions as I did. Nowhere does it say to glue the center girders to the base assembly. But there is no way just a press fit would hold the bridge assembly to the base

Everything is drying and I’ve already line up the truss to girders and all the fitting positioning slots lined up. Not sure if before supper I will get back at it.

The FB page has asked about the color and how it will be weathered. GN supposedly kept the mainline bridges in good shape and used silver as the bridge color. Well to me it’s got to have some rust but that truly is up to the owner. Here are a couple pictures, I found this 1 over the Lake Washington CanalView attachment 243519the owner this one
View attachment 243520
I like both but he will continue to look and make a decision. They both have some brighter coloring but both are rusted. Neither to my eye say the original color was silver

Later

Tom: Ya almost got me on the 1st pix wondering where the heck that was. Anyway, most folks around those parts know that bridge as the 'Ballard Bridge' or 'Bridge 9-1'. Little different view:

The 2nd one is West of Rock Island Dam ( East of Wenatchee ) and has a funny history. The original bridge did not have enough weight carrying capability and needed to be replaced. Well, main line between Everett and Spokane; .. points East that could not be taken down for an extended period, nor was there room to build a separate bridge at that location. So, build the new structure around the existing and go from there. Have pix of it somewhere. If I find in the next day or so....will post.

And below is West of Index Wa, East of Startup. Your standard BN silver bridge. You can get some ideas on weathering from those I hope.

Geesh, that could have been a Front End Friday shot...

Have fun!

L8r

 

[trailrider]

A few years ago I assembled the Walthers Double Track swing bridge. My only "problem" is that the bridge can't swing as there is only a couple of inches between it and a fixed bridge behind it, both crossing a river that runs perpendicular to the tracks from the back of this portion of the layout to the front edge, a distance of about 18"! Of course it "swings", at least you can imagine it does. Just like you have to imagine that the bridge behind it is at least a "mile" upriver.

 

[santafewillie]

The kits still sell. They are basically though the only game in town when it comes to kits that are not craftsman level

I have to agree that they are really the only kits that are truly close to being "railroad-sized".

 

[TLOC]

Tom: Ya almost got me on the 1st pix wondering where the heck that was. Anyway, most folks around those parts know that bridge as the 'Ballard Bridge' or 'Bridge 9-1'. Little different view:
View attachment 243531

The 2nd one is West of Rock Island Dam ( East of Wenatchee ) and has a funny history. The original bridge did not have enough weight carrying capability and needed to be replaced. Well, main line between Everett and Spokane; .. points East that could not be taken down for an extended period, nor was there room to build a separate bridge at that location. So, build the new structure around the existing and go from there. Have pix of it somewhere. If I find in the next day or so....will post.

And below is West of Index Wa, East of Startup. Your standard BN silver bridge. You can get some ideas on weathering from those I hope.
View attachment 243534
Geesh, that could have been a Front End Friday shot...

View attachment 243535
Have fun!

L8r

I sent the pictures to my friend to add it to the weathering question. Thank you. So the silver base is true

 

[TLOC]

I just went and double checked the bridge. After dinner was the Wisconsin Badger volleyball game against Penn State. The Badgers got crushed but…

I think it looks good. The joining of the truss to the girders closest to the bench edge did not go as smoothly as the dry fit testing did. But because I knew the parts properly fit without forcing them I continued. I did switch glues for this part of the assembly to Testors Black bottle cement that is a bit thicker than the red bottle I have and a million % thicker than the Tamiya Thin Cement in the green bottle I’ve been using

Notice the bench is cleaner around the bottle. Thats were I spilled the bottle!

According to the directions next should be adding the trackage to the girder deck and then add the cross braces. Since the owner of the bridge does not have the track I am going to tomorrow add the top cross pieces. Putting the track down later neither of us feel will be a hardship.

We have hockey on campus at 11am tomorrow and than the grandkids when we get home till maybe 7pm. So no promises that I will show anything until later Sunday afternoon after a 1pm hockey game and the Packers at 3:25pm.

If not I will be back posting Sunday late or Monday

Be well

 

[TLOC]

Tom: Ya almost got me on the 1st pix wondering where the heck that was. Anyway, most folks around those parts know that bridge as the 'Ballard Bridge' or 'Bridge 9-1'. Little different view:
View attachment 243531

The 2nd one is West of Rock Island Dam ( East of Wenatchee ) and has a funny history. The original bridge did not have enough weight carrying capability and needed to be replaced. Well, main line between Everett and Spokane; .. points East that could not be taken down for an extended period, nor was there room to build a separate bridge at that location. So, build the new structure around the existing and go from there. Have pix of it somewhere. If I find in the next day or so....will post.

And below is West of Index Wa, East of Startup. Your standard BN silver bridge. You can get some ideas on weathering from those I hope.
View attachment 243534
Geesh, that could have been a Front End Friday shot...

View attachment 243535
Have fun!

L8r

Thanks again Todd. He really likes this one and feels vindicated that the bridges were silver colored. He texted this morning. I’m going to play with some paint mixtures over the next few days when time permits

I found a Google earth view

 

[ctclibby]

Thanks again Todd. He really likes this one and feels vindicated that the bridges were silver colored. He texted this morning. I’m going to play with some paint mixtures over the next few days when time permits

I found a Google earth view
View attachment 243574

Thanks Tom!

Though not to bust your or his bubble .... there used to be a bridge just East of Sultan ( I think ) that is the prettiest sky blue. Can't find it on G.Earth so I suspect it has returned to all rust.... To tell you the truth, I don't even remember if it was railroad or road; just remember it stuck out like a sore thumb.

L8r

 

[TLOC]

I had an hour for the train room this morning. So while taking pictures of 2 new arrivals I sat at the bench.

The 1st of many end pieces to apply to the girders

Underneath rivet details added

Everything is drying and it looks like some glue cleanup needs to be done. A touch of Isopropyl Alcohol with a cotton tip and all will be good again

Maybe late later

 

[TLOC]

I’m watching the Packers but spending time online. My friend pretty much has decided how he wants the bridge finishing to look.
He supplied this picture

The bridge was built “around” 1960 to 1962 over the Skykomish River. He models 1965 so the coloring fits his time period. There is some weathering but not much

I should be done with building the bridge tomorrow and then be able to prime the bridge. Tamiya Arcylics basically are primers anyway so I will throw a light color on there and he can come over to check it out. I can build up the layers without losing the details to reach what he wants

Looks like my weathering fun will be on the abutments

 

[TLOC]

I don’t know who but I read an article years ago about the terrible Walthers instructions. He said to dry fit everything first. But thank you for that and me actually doing it. I’ve been working on the top cross pieces and iron work for the bridge. My back side is getting kicked all over the place.

The tools today:

The sanding sticks are grey 80 grit, tan is 180 grit the sheet is 100 grit, the and the nail filing stick is unknown but fits some spaces better. Lots of clamps, Model Masters thick black bottle glue and #11 blades with different handles from Fiskars (orange and white) and Zona (black handle).

Some clamps in action. I am on break!