I'm calling this the "Gator Bridge to Gatorville"
It's the Univ.of Florida Gator colors.







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Other than repainting it to your school colors, What do you think ?

Doug

This message has been edited. Last edited by: boomer0622,

Looks cool.... and Lionel!

Very nice. I find refreshing that iron oxide-ultramarine color scheme you have going there.

Very nice cable stayed bridge.

Thanks Chuck, I thought I might be using the wrong name, I've corrected my caption.

Doug

Very impresssive!What are you using for the cables?

Certainly would like to hear more about the construction from concept to completion. Hey Allan Miller! You got yer ears on?

Really nice bridge and a cool idea. Very different. Cables look like gimp - am I correct?

I am curious as to how you treated the bottom of the bridge and how you attached the cables. Any chance of a photo?

Thanks,

Fred

Is that weed-whacker "cable"?

Thats a way cool bridge! Awesome idea! I especially like the Gator hat pin on the girder above the roadway, personalized Florida style! Keep up the good work!

Very nice Doug. I'm guessing that the cables are orange weed wacker line.

I echo the compliments - I really like that bridge. Lucky for you your school colors happen to be those of Lionel.

I also echo the requests for more about how you built it - what are the components, and how did you attach the cables to the bridge deck?

Nice work, thanks for posting.

John

Looks real good. And it's in UVA colors, too. Wahoo!!

quote:

Very nice Doug. I'm guessing that the cables are orange weed wacker line.

Very interesting! And just a good reminder to everyone, about now HD and Lowes and other big box home improvement stores usually have sales[ blowouts] on reels of this cable now!

Doug,

Great job, I love seeing home-made projects!

Are you planning on running double-tracks on it?

Jim

I saw enough Gator colors Saturday night

Very nice work!

WOW ! Thanks for all your kind words, I was expecting some real ribbing.
I would like to thank my friend and forum member RickBigs for all his advise and willingness to share his knowledge on this project. Rick has a similar bridge attached to his ceiling layout in Atlanta.

The cable is weed wacker twine, I started off with blue twine then decided the orange would show up better. The cables are held on one end by a squeese on cable clamp, threaded back and forth through the holes then held by a small turnbuckle.
JUSTIN, you're close, the Gator pins are ear rings.
I do have construction pictures that I'll post, I'll get them over to photobucket and post them soon.

jd-train, you ask about a double track, to be honest I never thought about it until you ask. So I put it down on the kitchen floor and slid in another track. It looks like it will work. This may open up a whole new plan.

Boomer,
That really is a super bridge! It looks like it came right from Lionel's layout that I saw in York back in April. Fine work!

How long is it? From the photo in your kitchen it looks to be over 4'.

Congrats on completing a really beautiful piece boomer!

- walt

Thanks again for the kind words.

The length of it is 8 ft. and heigth is 27 in. I'll be cutting the length down to about 6 ft. and lowering it a couple of inches.

It looks better with a few cars crossing it.




Doug

That's a great looking bridge.

My wife's uncle was one of the designers of the stayed cable bridge across the Mississippi River, known as the Luling or Hale Boggs Bridge.

For pictures see http://bridgehunter.com/la/st-charles/luling/

I've always wanted him to design a bridge for a railroad.

Lad

BTW He was 90 last week and is still designing bridges.

NICE!

May I suggest a variation on the cable attachment to the roadbed. If fishing, lead sinkers (the type that is split shot) is used on the roadbed end of each cable, and pushed up into the hole to hide the sinker, the cable strung between each hole would not be seen as it would not be there.

Very Nice!

Would apply to the Broncos and Auburn U. as well.

Here are a few construction pictures.
This is the squeeze on cable clamp

These are the parts I used.

Drilled holes in roadbed 1 1/2" apart except where the upright supports go.

Routed a 1/4" grove in the bottom of roadbed to help hide the cable that's sturng from hole to hole. I should have made it deeper.

Paper cutouts of the cross supports.

End view of the upright support, I routed a 1/4" grove for wires for blinking lights, then routed a 3/4" slot to hold the piece with holes to thread the cables thu.

Holding the roll of weedeater twine in my hand and thread it was impossible so I put it over a cardboard tube and held it in place with some clamps.

Cable threaded before tighting.

Turnbuckle in place.


Thanks for looking,

Doug

This message has been edited. Last edited by: boomer0622,

Very nice job and thanks for posting the construction/how to shots!

quote:

Originally posted by boomer0622:
I'm calling this the "Gator Bridge to Gatorville"
It's the Univ.of Florida Gator colors.






Other than repainting it to your school colors, What do you think ?

Doug

It already is in Syracuse University colors.

Well done. That is a great bridge. Thanks for posting the construction photos.

what are you going to span with that bridge?

Doug.....

I had to take my time reviewing your text and photo's to take in how wonderful your bridge is.

Your bridge and creativity is a prime example of what can come out of this hobby. All I can say is well done. Your bridge is super. IMHO

Regards,

Tex

Thanks again for the encouraging words.

This bridge is to be the bottom span of a double modular helix I'm trying to create. The helix isn't far enough along yet to post pictures of it. However I am taking progress pictures as I go.

Doug

Great job boomer!

As a University of Illinois alum I could see that on my layout. After watching the Illini looking so bad the past two weeks vs. Ohio State and Penn State, a bridge like yours would be a welcome sight!!!! (Just need to get the blue a bit darker)

More seriously, I could easily see the orange and blue Illini block "I" design incorporated into the supports. I think the owner of Ross Custom Switches is U of I grad....maybe a next project after the TT is a bridge!

I think the orange needs to be more brilliant and the blue darker to really get the U. of I. colors right. That and a little statue of Rod Blago letting people sneak in.

quote:

Originally posted by illinoiscentral:
I think the orange needs to be more brilliant and the blue darker to really get the U. of I. colors right. That and a little statue of Rod Blago letting people sneak in.

IlinoisCentral...
You got that right!! Perhaps the bridge could lead from Springfield to the Federal Penitentary!

hopfully, those cables are properly post tensioned to the proper psi . all kidding aside, an excellent looking bridge!-jim

Boomer:

Wow, what great work. I certainly hope there will be an invitation extended to see the finished and installed product.

Bud

I have been working on an idea of some sort of facia support along the bottom of the road bed. As you can see by the first picture, the cables and the end clamps are exposed.


Here I'm using a 1/4" X 1 1/2" lattice painted blue and the orange pieces are 1/4" x 1/4" cut from scrap oak.


Here is the same section just turned around.


None of the pieces are glued on yet so it's held together with the rubberbands on the ends.

Please tell me which way you think would look better. My plans are to make this run the full length and both sides of the bridge.

Thanks for looking,

Doug

This message has been edited. Last edited by: boomer0622,

VERY NICE. Where did you get those little turnbuckles?


Rick

The turnbuckles came from Ace Hardware.

Doug

Doug,

Are the turnbuckles under the deck? I do not see them in the finished photos?

A great looking bridge! I am always so impressed with the creativity and knowledge of the people on this forum. Makes me feel smarter just being a member and reading posts.

PS: I do have to admit the Gators look pretty good this year. Some of my best friends are Gator fans.

BillP.....Yes the turnbuckles are under the deck. If you look at the pictures just after walt rapp's post ie. 9/30 at 9:10 AM (about 1/3 the way down in this thread ) they show up pretty good.

Doug

Doug, I have been following this with great interest. It is great that you have shared it with the rest of us. The creativity you have in building this bridge is also great. So my new word "great" replaces "wow". Both probably fall short here. Joe