Progress on Girder Bridge

I made some significant progress on our newly designed and now fully built girder bridge for our garden railroad yesterday.  Hmmm...  well, I guess it is not fully built just yet because I still need to pave it with fine sand and I need to add lights.  The bridge, itself, is fully built though.  

Consequently, my spinal pain last night was unbearable.  My spine was on fire with sharp pain radiating to my hips, pelvic region and kidneys.  The pain truly was brutal, take-your-breath away type of pain.  I'm feeling significantly better this morning so that is good!

Yesterday's primary job was to assemble all the balusters, the top rail and the parapet bearings at each corner.  This promised to be a tedious job but it went more smoothly and more quickly than I expected.  Each baluster needed to be glued and nailed in place, one-by-one, using a nail gun so it was definitely a tedious process.  My air compressor and nail gun made this go more smoothly!

After assembling a small mock-up the other day, I had changed the plan a bit.  The mock up just wasn't looking right.  

Every fourth baluster was a bulky 5/8"x5/8" so I glued and nailed those in place first spaced four inches apart.  I worked on one side of the bridge and, after it was completed, then moved to the other side.  After the bulky balusters were in place, I then placed three smaller 3/8"x3/8" balusters in between.  These smaller balusters were now closer together than the original plan.  The original plan had all of the balusters spaced evenly but I didn't care for that.  I changed the plan to have a grouping of three smaller balusters placed closely together but centered in between the bulkier balusters.  This looks far better as you'll see in the photos below.

I had tools all over the place including an air tank for my nail gun.  Unfortunately, not everything was in reach so this created the need for a lot of getting down on the ground, then getting up, then getting down again, then getting up again...   which added to the spinal pain at the end of the day.

As seen in the photo below, I screwed a flat piece of wood to be used as a guide underneath the bridge.  This allowed me to place each baluster down right on this guide for gluing and the nailing.  When I removed the wood guide, all the balusters were perfectly even with the underside of the bridge deck.  

In this photo below, you can begin to see how I had spaced the balusters...  single bulky one....  group of smaller balusters spaced farther from the bulky baluster...  then another bulky baluster...  repeated across the whole length of the bridge...  so...  1...  3...  1...  3...  1...  etc...

In this photo below, you can see I've added the top rail which runs from parapet bearing on one end to the parapet bearing on the other end.  

I also changed these parapets too.  In my mock up model, these parapets had flat front surfaces.  I chose to make them in more of an Art Deco style.  This definitely fits the era of the railroad better and I'm a fan of Art Deco anyway.

Below, we can see both sides assembled...

After capturing a few photos of the assembled bridge, I started painting.  I chose an off-white heirloom white for this 1930s-era girder bridge...

The road surface is still bare wood as seen in some of these photos.  I plan to coat the road surface with exterior waterproof construction adhesive and then sprinkle a covering of fine sand over the adhesive.  This should protect the wood somewhat as well as hold the fine sand in place.  And, it should look good!

Below, we can see the whole bridge and how it spans from one side of the garden to the other side.  Once we get our springtime growth, the plants in the middle of the big dog-bone layout obscure the other side of the layout.  Right now it looks completely bare.  I'm looking forward to that curtain of vegetation growing again.

For now, this bridge is covered (wrapped in plastic garbage bags) to protect the wood that is still bare from rain.  We should have rain for the next week so that will put this project on hold for now.  I managed to get a lot accomplished though.

So, once the rain stops and the forecast looks dry again, I will do some light sanding in some rough spots and then add a second coat of paint.  After painting, then I can deal with the road's surface and that fine sand.  

In the meantime, it is coming along nicely!