I started the construction step by gluing two sets of 2.5' x 2.5' H-beams butt-to-butt. This makes the basic length-wise span of the structure. I am using Testors Plastic Cement for the glue.

To ensure that the H-columns are perfectly straight, I drew a line and glued four pieces of strip wood along it. The circle shows the strip wood, and the line points to the pencil line. I used regular wood glue and my favorite glue dispenser - the toothpick.

The H-column then rests against the strip wood pieces. I used the square to line up the first 35-foot I-beam that spans the distance between the two parallel H-columns. The I-beam is 1 foot wide and 2.5 feet tall.

I then continued to place more I-beams at a distance of 40 feet on center. This means that each bridge span section is a nice 40-foot square. I will need 6 of these and then two 18-foot sections on the ends of the bridge to make the total 277 feet.

Here is the completed ladder frame. After installing all the I-beams, I glued the other H-column span to the beams.

Now that the basic frame is in place, I need to work on lateral structural support. The diagonal cross beams are going to be mounted to gusset plates, so these plates need to go in first. I decided on a scale 5ft x 5ft plate chamfered at the corners.

The dominant cross beam is a T-shape of about 1 foot wide and 1 foot tall. This provides structural support between the spans (it keeps the bridge straight). I did this in a zig-zag pattern across the whole structure. These beams are glued to the top side of the gusset plate.

The cross beam for the other corners are just 2-foot wide flat steel beams. They are connected to the gusset plates and attached to the under side of the T-shape beams mentioned above. I carefully cut these strips using an exacto knife and a ruler.

Next, the tie and track support. The photo to the left is of the assembled support. It consists of two I-beams that run the length of the bridge. These beams are 3.5 feet tall and 1.5 feet wide. The two beams are separated by a 6-foot stretch of the same I-beam. This makes the support structure 9 feet wide - the width of the bridge track ties. Needless to say, since I am building a double-track bridge, there are two of these support structures.

Glue may be sufficient to hold the model together, in the real world they use gusset plates. I made 32 gusset plates that are 3 feet square, with their corners chopped off.



I have also trimmed the bridge ladder frame to the appropriate length. This required a bit of trimming of the wood on the layout as well. The bridge is now 277 feet long.

The foundation structure of the bridge is now complete. What you see here is the ladder framework on the bottom and the two track support structures glued on top. The track supports have been placed such that they line up with the track that is already in place on the layout. Gluing these three components together finally made the whole structure solid. It was a very exciting and satisfying moment to see all this coming together.

This is the board walk between the two tracks. This is, I assume, where the bridge maintenance crew walked. Also, should the train need to make an emergency stop on the bridge, passengers would be able to exit the cars on foot. This board walk was made out of wood strips. The individual boards are 12 inches wide and 6 inches thick. The total number of boards across is 13. The board walk spans the entire bridge span (277 feet). The boards were glued to 12" x 12" strip boards underneath (you can barely see them on the large photo). These boards will not be visible when the bridge is installed, so I didn't make them prototypical - just functional.

But first, it is off to the paint shop. I agonized over the steps. Here were some of my thoughts. First, if I build the entire structure and then paint it, it will be difficult to mask off those areas that should not be painted. Also, installing the track and the boardwalk with the super structure in place is going to be a challenge. If I paint the completed bottom frame first, then separately build the super structure (and paint it by itself) there is a good chance that the super structure and bottom structure will not perfectly line up.

Now that the bottom frame is done it is time to focus my attention to the top part of the structure. This is a lot more complicated. In addition to the more traditional overhead truss structure, there is also the integration with the A frame structure that holds the motor house and the lifting structure.

Well, after nearly two disasters, I am back on track. I spray painted the bottom frame structure with a gray primer. I used normal masking tape to tape off the areas that needed to be glued upon later on. After the paint dried (overnight), it became apparent that normal masking tape is not an ideal product for masking areas off. An awful lot of tape residue remained. Using Goo Gone started to take off the primer paint, so I abandoned that quickly. Then, I spilled half of the Testors glue bottle on top and underneath the model. Five of the vertical columns you see on the model photo to the left were instantly attached to the table surface. Luckily the bridge itself was not badly damaged. Some of the paint on the bottom of the model was damaged, but that is OK. Finally, I got back to work on cutting, sanding, and gluing the vertical posts. They are made out of 2.5' x 2.5' H-beams.

And here the other side's vertical columns have been attached. Each column is 35 feet tall. This should provide for enough clearance for the trains and the overhead structure. I have decided on a simpler overhead design than what the FEC Strauss Bascule Bridge has. I will get to that later. The photo above is shown from the end of the bridge; this photo is shown from the motor house side of the bridge. All this will also be clearer later.

The horizontal top beams have been installed. These are also 2.5' x 2.5' H-beams.

The angled support beams at the end of the bridge have been cut and glued into place.

This is just a temporary set-up. I wanted to take a break from the bridge building. However, I want to run trains. But to run trains I need track. And to finish laying the track, I need to finish this bridge. So...

The diagonal I-beams have been installed.

Again, off to cutting and gluing more gusset plates. This time to make sure the horizontal and diagonal beams don't wander off somewhere when a heavy diesel comes thundering by. The inset shows the 4ft by 4ft gusset plates cut similarly to the ones above.

Today's task? 62 gusset plates. This photo shows where I am working on cutting 4-foot by 7-foot plates.

After about three hours of work, all the gusset plates have been cut and glued into place.

Overhead horizontal braces were installed. These were made out of 3.5 feet by 1.5 feet I-beams. I used a C-clamp to hold the two sides together after putting the bridge upside down. This made it possible to fine-tune the braces. After the glue dried they were in there nice and tight and the bridge is square.

This is a close-up of the gusset for the motor house side of the bridge span. This is where the lifting mechanism will eventually be attached. It was made out of a sheet of 8-foot by 10-foot with corners trimmed to fit the shape of the bridge beams.

Now for the fun part! I took two T-beams (1-foot by 1-foot) and cut them such that they make a lap joint much like you would do for woodworking. This was definitely work that required the magnifying glasses and a steady hand. I held the pieces straight using some weights that were balanced on some spare T-beams.

These are the two T-beams cut to form a lap joint.

Here they are dry-fitted.

While the two T-beams were in a stable position on the bridge and their location matched their eventual position, I placed a drop of glue in their intersection to hold them together. This glue joint is not strong enough (neither in the model world nor in the real one), so I cut a piece of 3-foot by 3-foot gusset, trimmed each of the four corners, and glued it on top of the intersection. It was now strong enough to be lifted off the structure. I also marked with a pen where to cut the four ends of the T-beams. I used rail nippers to make the cuts.

I then cut and glued four 5-foot by 5-foot gusset plates on the top of the bridge. After I turned the bridge over, I worked the T-beams structure so that they rested on the inside of the gusset plates. Added a little glue to all four areas, et voila, a top span. This one took about an hour and a half to make. Four more to go...

The top diagonal T-beam spans are now finished. It took a total of two hours to complete them.

The diagonal support for the motor house end of the bridge still had to be installed. I ran out of I-beam material, so I fabricated one from a channel beam with two strips of styrene glued to the edges of the flat side of the channel.

A smaller support structure across the span of the bridge can be clearly seen here because of the white styrene. This is the end of the bridge. The clearance is around 25 feet from the rail tops.

And here is the motor house side of the bridge with its corresponding structure made out of white styrene.

The basic structure of the movable section of the bascule bridge is now complete. I intend to build a staircase along the bridge so that maintenance can be done on the top of the structure, but I have decided to wait with that until sometime in the future. My objective for now was just to create the fundamental structure needed to install the track. I have spent a total of 31 hours in building this section of the bridge. Eventually I will come back and build the A-frame motor house and lifting structure.

Next, I am off to the paint shop for a coat of gray primer...

I spray painted the entire structure with a primer gray, typically used for automotive priming. It works well, however you do have to watch for quick build-up. The lesson learned from spraying the bottom structure before building the super structure was, don't do it! Whenever plastics still need to be glued onto a structure, I will not pre-paint anything. Scraping off the paint from areas where the paint accidentally landed is very time-consuming. All that is left to do on this structure is glue the track and wooden walkway in between the tracks. I plan on doing that with slow-setting epoxy glue because of the dissimilar materials, hence the spray painting now.

The model has been painted with Poly S "Stainless Steel". It took 4 hours over three nights.