Garden Trains:
Questions and Answers
Garden Trains :How to use Bridges on Your Garden Railroad
By Jo Anne DeKeles
Feb 19, 2006, 06:53

Tim Anderson Bridge's add character to a railroad. Logging railroads probably created some of the most interesting "bridges". Today with the weight of the new G engines the bridges have to work just like the prototype. Engines are just too expensive to build a cheap bridge to save a few cents.

Edward Stempien: I have a small set-up in my back yard. In it, I have incorporated three bridges, all scratch-built. The bridges create the system. I wish that my terrain (flat coastal South Carolina), were more conducive to the use of bridges. They lend realism to the system and give the opportunity to fantasize at being a Civil Engineer.

Ed Frey: Bridges on outdoor railways are of almost universal appeal. Ever notice how many ads, magazine covers, and layout photos show the trains on a bridge? I can't imagine a railroad without bridges. Maybe it's because of the aspiring "civil engineer" in most of us, but more practically, it's usually because we need a place for water to go, we have a topographical gap to cross, or we need to get one track over another. Based on comments from our railroader and non-railroader visitors, they are seen as focal points that add interest and plausibility to the right-of-way. Besides, I just enjoy building them

David Clapper: Bridges and railroads share a long history. The railroad's need for a nearly level roadbed made bridges necessary where the common wagon roads in the early days tended to follow the contours of the landscape. So, a railroad without a bridge is quite unusual.


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