Deck girder bridge from steel

[nygma]

Personal favourite (sniffle)
If you do produce a kit - at the right price - put me down as interested of Luxembourg (no class clickety-click though). I mean your box bridge, mind you if you can do Friargate I think there are a few here that would fight to get one.

I can produce some kits for the box bridge. This design is also interesting. Looks quite elaborate, but it is not me who has to cut it
Where is this particular bridge, or where can I find similar designs? I would probably need more photos or take a look.

 

[nygma]

And for everyone else, thanks for the nice words.

 

[Neil Robinson]

This design is also interesting. Looks quite elaborate, but it is not me who has to cut it
Where is this particular bridge, or where can I find similar designs? I would probably need more photos or take a look.

The link below should prove a good starting point.

http://www.derbyphotos.co.uk/features/friargatebridge/ < Link To http://www.derbyphotos.co...tures/friargatebridge/

 

[peterbunce]

Hi,

Nice work re your bridge - as its steel the best finish could be powder coating (to stop it rusting) That powder is I belive added via an electric current to make it stick si is quite strong.

The other metal is stainless steel but that is difficult to paint, after all thats why its stainless!

 

[muns]

Hi,

Nice work re your bridge - as its steel the best finish could be powder coating (to stop it rusting) That powder is I belive added via an electric current to make it stick si is quite strong.

The other metal is stainless steel but that is difficult to paint, after all thats why its stainless!

I would agree, powder coating would probaby be the best for steel (or aluminium) but it aint cheap. The paint is electrostatically charged so that it is attracted to the item (which is given the opposite charge). It is then passed through an oven (300degC) to bake the powder on.

 

[pugwash]

This design is also interesting. Looks quite elaborate, but it is not me who has to cut it
Where is this particular bridge, or where can I find similar designs? I would probably need more photos or take a look.

The link below should prove a good starting point.

http://www.derbyphotos.co.uk/features/friargatebridge/ < Link To http://www.derbyphotos.co...tures/friargatebridge/

Neil was obviously out of bed before me! The bridge is Friargate (properly Friar Gate but the railway joined the name) in the city of Derby, googling gets some ace close ups too. It is intricate and possibly not such a good proposition, but you did ask for favourites and this one is mine - I used to work right next to it!
Great work and if you go into production of the box bridge please let me know,
cheers, Ian

 

[nygma]

Hi,

Nice work re your bridge - as its steel the best finish could be powder coating (to stop it rusting) That powder is I belive added via an electric current to make it stick si is quite strong.

The other metal is stainless steel but that is difficult to paint, after all thats why its stainless!

I would agree, powder coating would probaby be the best for steel (or aluminium) but it aint cheap. The paint is electrostatically charged so that it is attracted to the item (which is given the opposite charge). It is then passed through an oven (300degC) to bake the powder on.

Unfortunately this is not as simple as that. I have asked almost everyone - I knew - on this matter. Powder coating would my peferable preservation option as well, but baking has its own issues. Obviously soft soldering is not an option as it would melt at that temperatures and same for glues. This is too delicate for traditional welding or even spot welding. Silver solder would be an options, but the it requires so much heat that it would probably cause distortion to the structure.
Other option to cut it from mild steel and get is galvanized after assembled or in parts. But again that would be quite expensive - I guess. I was suggested to use galvanized steel and treat the cut edges with rust protection. After it is traditional paint methods.
If you happen to know companies that can galvanize economically, that would be the other option.

 

[Woderwick]

Any reason why you cant cut it in stainless ?

 

[coyote97]

whatever it will go to:
this is one of the best bases for a bridge i have ever seen.

There might be some options to continue:
using brass sheet to solder or aluminium with a special glue.

Even some well picked laser-solder points may bring it to completeness.

I am looking for a good method of producing girder bridges and this thing has very much potential.
Therefore: talking about some further details, i would like to get an offer to deal those things here in Germany.
Why the heck should i try it by myself, if there is something ready-to-use?

Sure: for VERY detailed bridges it may not be the right way. But with this method, we are talking about some minutes to cut and about some steel sheet....the detailed bridges are expensive! VERY expensive!

What i like with this is the short and easy way to get a good result. Its about: 20% power for 80% result. It is THE way to bring fine looking bridges to the modelrailroaders!

And i DONT like plastics!
The older i get, the less i like it.


Maybe i got your interest. Give me a mail!


Greetings

Frank

 

[Aljosha]

Currently I am looking for the next potential prototypes. Do you have a favorite steel bridge?

Hi nygma,
That's a great job! I would be queueing up to buy a ready made from you one day!
Why is yours 1:20 and not 1:22.5 = LGB size? OR better: which scale trains are you running?
As for more ideas why not these?

Ok, more seriously:

 

[nygma]

Any reason why you cant cut it in stainless ?

No particular reason. I am just tarting the understand the cost, time implications. I think stainless steel and aluminium is going to be the next consideration. I don't think that it will have a big impact on the price. I will talk to my cutting company.

 

[nygma]

Very nice.

It won't be long before we are all making our own laser cut models. I was only looking at the cost of the machines yesterday and the prices have come down a lot. You can buy a small new laser cutter for wood and plastic for £4000 and a steel ccutingone for £11000.

People often don't realise that as well as cutting you can also use the same machines for etching so you can get the same detailed finish you would of got from using acid but without all the prep. and safety risks. If you have the skills and patience to produce the drawings in CAD you can use a laser cutter to not only cut and the parts but to produce fine detail down to wood grain, so in theory anyone could make a model that looks as good as a factory produced injection molded plastic etched brass model.

I am pretty sure that these technologies are getting cheaper. Just like 3D printing. But if you buy such a machine also consider the space it takes, electricity (probably rewireing) and also you probably need a lot of time to learn how to use it properly. I think the engraving is another great potential. I remember seeing a company where you can put your cut and engraving lines on different layers (or colours in a Coreldraw file) and the machine will trace those lines with different power setting.
Also consider how big sheet the machine can handle. So far I my longers part is 1000 mm, but if I move to arch trusses I might need much bigger parts.

 

[nygma]

That's a great job! I would be queueing up to buy a ready made from you one day!
Why is yours 1:20 and not 1:22.5 = LGB size? OR better: which scale trains are you running?
As for more ideas why not these?

Ok, more seriously:

With 1:20 I wanted to be between 1:22.5 for LGB and 1:19 for 16 mm
You bridge looks absolutely stunning (sorry for the adjectives, I was just watching X-Factor). What is it made of?
Back to your question, I have 1:32 scale 1 continental stock. So far only Marklin electric models, I was seriously considering a second hand Aster live steam, but someone was faster than me.

 

[Aljosha]

That's a great job! I would be queueing up to buy a ready made from you one day!
Why is yours 1:20 and not 1:22.5 = LGB size? OR better: which scale trains are you running?
As for more ideas why not these?

Ok, more seriously:

With 1:20 I wanted to be between 1:22.5 for LGB and 1:19 for 16 mm
You bridge looks absolutely stunning (sorry for the adjectives, I was just watching X-Factor). What is it made of?
Back to your question, I have 1:32 scale 1 continental stock. So far only Marklin electric models, I was seriously considering a second hand Aster live steam, but someone was faster than me.

Wow, Marklin is rare in the UK. I very much like them, not the cost though , but in the end got stuck with LGB,
Do you plan to do an open day in the future?
The bridge is of metal, more info here:
http://www.gardenrailways.cz/

A dream what they have of bridges!

Sorry to hear about your Aster-dream! There's a live steam Nicky/Frank S on German ebay at the mo'. Do you need that one? Can bring it over in Dec when driving up to B'ham.

 

[mike]

ummmmm bridges.. i likes bridges.. not bow

 

[nygma]

Wow, Marklin is rare in the UK. I very much like them, not the cost though , but in the end got stuck with LGB,
Do you plan to do an open day in the future?
The bridge is of metal, more info here:
http://www.gardenrailways.cz/

Sorry to hear about your Aster-dream! There's a live steam Nicky/Frank S on German ebay at the mo'. Do you need that one? Can bring it over in Dec when driving up to B'ham.

Markus, so that's you! I found this site a long time ago, and I loved it. Bridges and the stone packets are wonderful. Great stuff.
I am Hungarian and started collected Marklin before moving to the UK. Besides my start set, everything is from eBay. Marklin is very hard to find on UK eBay, but if one comes around it is sold on very good price. I got quite a few wagons and coaches for amazing price. Living in a 1 bedroom apartment in London does not give a lot of opportunities for garden railways

Your Class 754 looks really good. Is it similar to PIKO mainline engines in terms of scale? Maybe you should have started with Marklin as well if you like mainline so much.

Aster was a BR 86 on W&C for £800. That is a very good price for a live steam and would have been perfect as a first live steam engine.

 

[Aljosha]

Wow, Marklin is rare in the UK. I very much like them, not the cost though , but in the end got stuck with LGB,
Do you plan to do an open day in the future?
The bridge is of metal, more info here:
http://www.gardenrailways.cz/
Sorry to hear about your Aster-dream! There's a live steam Nicky/Frank S on German ebay at the mo'. Do you need that one? Can bring it over in Dec when driving up to B'ham.

Markus, so that's you! I found this site a long time ago, and I loved it. Bridges and the stone packets are wonderful. Great stuff.
I am Hungarian and started collected Marklin before moving to the UK. Besides my start set, everything is from eBay. Marklin is very hard to find on UK eBay, but if one comes around it is sold on very good price. I got quite a few wagons and coaches for amazing price. Living in a 1 bedroom apartment in London does not give a lot of opportunities for garden railways

Your Class 754 looks really good. Is it similar to PIKO mainline engines in terms of scale? Maybe you should have started with Marklin as well if you like mainline so much.

Aster was a BR 86 on W&C for £800. That is a very good price for a live steam and would have been perfect as a first live steam engine.

Hi Szabi, is that you?! Welcome back! No, sadly this is not my loco/layout/bridge on above picture, it's taken from their website.
Have you got any pictures yet of your Marklin railway company?

 

[nygma]

Hi Szabi, is that you?! Welcome back! No, sadly this is not my loco/layout/bridge on above picture, it's taken from their website.
Have you got any pictures yet of your Marklin railway company?

No, I am not Szabi but Csongor. I know one Szabi he is a bike maniac living also in London. I think he sort of stopped modelling.

For whatever reason I don't have pictures available on the net. But there are some videos:
Starter set going around in a spare bedroom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iQmLr4bQSI
Open day at my friends first layout:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPN0v4-78DE

That's all at the moment I am afraid. Enjoy.

 

[Andrew Foster]

It's an impressive bridge, and I especially like the walkway/handrail supports - very nicely done. It will be interesting to see what kind of quantities turn out to be economic for you if you go to kits. I'm finding that minimum batches of five make sense for my own http://gnomengineers.com/ < Link To bridges, and I start to get a decent price from the laser cutter at that level. If you can adopt a modular approach and offer a variety of lengths from the same parts, that should help too. You've certainly chosen a good prototype - plate girders are far more common than trusses in the UK, and are much more photogenic with a train passing over.

I like your avatar picture. I worked in the Nohab factory in Trollhättan where it was built, long ago when I was a student.

Andrew

 

[nygma]

It's an impressive bridge, and I especially like the walkway/handrail supports - very nicely done. It will be interesting to see what kind of quantities turn out to be economic for you if you go to kits. I'm finding that minimum batches of five make sense for my own http://gnomengineers.com/ < Link To bridges, and I start to get a decent price from the laser cutter at that level. If you can adopt a modular approach and offer a variety of lengths from the same parts, that should help too. You've certainly chosen a good prototype - plate girders are far more common than trusses in the UK, and are much more photogenic with a train passing over.

I like your avatar picture. I worked in the Nohab factory in Trollhättan where it was built, long ago when I was a student.

Andrew

Hi Andrew,
Thanks for your comments. The batch size would probably right, but I still have to figure out. I think it also depends on the sheet size the company can cut and how many bridges you can make from one sheet. As I was told significant cost of laser cutting comes from the setup. Once the sheet is set and aligned it is not much more expensive to get more parts cut and leave machine going.

Thanks for the link. I like your design. Under-truss girder is a nice piece of engineering.

Nohab: it is indeed a small world Nohabs are absolute cult in Hungary. If I am correct 4 or 5 are restored on been put aside to be restored. They are used for special services that are always sold out.
Hopefully money for these bridges will go into a Nohab model. Swiss company http://www.proform-spur1.com/10487/index.html < Link To Proform came out with the model in scale 1 recently. If you happen to have some old pic please share them.

Cheers,
Csongor