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Hi,
On my railroad I will have a penninsula with a creek running across it. On one of the bridges which is about 4 inches long and single track I will have an Atlas number 4 turnout. I know that this isn't the best location for a turnout but the turnout can't be moved at all in either direction to get it off of the bridge and there are turnouts on bridges in the real world. The ?Throwbar? (the movable tie connected to the switch points is about an inch into the bridge. The end of it extends well over the planned side of the bridge and and a switch throw would make it even further out. I plan on cutting the plywood in a way that the plywood in the location of the bridge can me removed at some point in the future when I have a bridge scratchbuilt for it. So for now I plan on just cutting the plywood around the throwbar but what do I do when I build the actual bridge?
Thanks,
conrailocs
The prototypes didn't often do this, certainly unless they had little choice, but they did have little choice in at least one situation that I have been over, on a train, several times. It is at the Catalyst Pulp and Paper Mill in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island. You might even find a decent resolution google earth image.
Here is that turnout. I have had to build something very similar on my new layout using the Fast Tracks method. Works like a hot damn, even with my BLI Niagara and its Walthers heavyweights doing 90 scale mph...honest...tried it twice.
So, you build your bridge, but keep in mind that you must later actually lay your tracks over it. I would not build the bridge until I had my tracks nearly on opposite sides of the creek or whatever. That way, the bridge is custom-placed and built, and you can fit your turnout directly into place with custom-cut rails. Simply slide joiners back, insert the turnout, and slide the turnouts over to grap the turnout rails. You can use a very small dab of the caulk just to keep it in place, but do not solder, and no caulk under the ties.
I was thinking that I'd use a plate girder or deck girder bridge. It would have to be scratchbuilt because no retail bridges have turnouts on them and even if they did it would be hard to find one with the right spacing. Another example of a turnout on a Bridge is on the CSX bridge over the Youghiogheny River in McKeesport, PA. In this case it is even a mainline that the turnout is on.
I think you could place a turnout on one of the Atlas bridges, very similarly to the photo above. If not an Atlas girder bridge, then maybe a Model power version-there have been several 9" girder bridges out there. How about a central valley one, or maybe one of the micro engineering bridges?
In Bellows Falls VT there is a situation where the points of a turnout would have been on a bridge, but they avoided it by extending the turnout with gantlet track, and moved the points to the far end: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/70243633
