A few months ago I started my garden railroad, including pond and waterfall. In front of the waterfall I wanted a centerpiece bridge. To get running trains as soon as possible I built a quick-and-dirty 6 foot long truss bridge out of a redwood fence board and some plant stakes to span in front of the waterfall. This bridge was to be replaced with a Howe truss bridge, but after some research I decide to build a suspension bridge. Besides being a cool bridge (especially to a structural engineer), the reduced depth would be least obstructive to the view of the waterfall. The bridge is patterned after the Harter Brothers Lumber Co. bridge as seen on page 135 of The Climax Locomotive book (Oso Publishing).
All of the lumber is cut on my table saw from redwood fence boards. I drew up the plans in Autocad (if anyone is interested in the plans I am willing to share), printed them out full size, and built the bridge components right on the plans . The suspension cables are 1/16” stranded cable, with the verticals soldered to the suspension cables. All joints are glued with Titebond III and pinned with 18 gage brads.
Construction begins
The bridge being replaced
First train across
Next; trestles.
Jesse
All of the lumber is cut on my table saw from redwood fence boards. I drew up the plans in Autocad (if anyone is interested in the plans I am willing to share), printed them out full size, and built the bridge components right on the plans . The suspension cables are 1/16” stranded cable, with the verticals soldered to the suspension cables. All joints are glued with Titebond III and pinned with 18 gage brads.
Construction begins
The bridge being replaced
First train across
Next; trestles.
Jesse