Chilcott’s Ck bridge transoms – Part III …

Hi all,

Today I made another jig to enable application of white paint on the ends of the transoms.

Up until a few days ago, I had no idea as to why the ends were painted white, but after obtaining some info from two fellow modellers, it appears it was a form of timber preservation treatment.

The simple jig was made from styrene strip and it sat over the transom leaving a six inch piece exposed at the end.  Some acrylic white paint was then dry brushed on the top, sides and end of each transom.  The resultant finish I think looks like the white paint has been there a few years.

The following two pictures show the finished result.

Cheers.

Chilcott’s Ck bridge transoms – Part II …

Hi all,

Transom installation is now complete on the Chilcott’s Ck bridge.

After the initial staining mentioned in the previous post, I thought the transoms ended up a bit too light, so I attacked them with some of the crayon powders, and I think they look heaps better.  The plan is to do more weathering using the powders after the rails have been installed.

I had thought a fair bit on what type of glue to use for fixing the transoms to the girders, and after seeking advice from fellow modellers, I decided to use Tarzan’s Grip.  I had thought about using 5 minute Araldite, but there’s just not enough working time with the stuff, and the normal Araldite takes hours to completely set.  The Tarzan’s Grip cures in thirty minutes and remains usable for about ten minutes.

There are ninety eight transoms on the bridge and I decided to fix down ten at a time.

The first transom was fixed in place, ensuring it was square to the girders, and allowed to set before commencing the others.

The spacing between transoms was made at eight scale inches using pieces of styrene strip.

 

After gluing a batch of transoms in place, some old Kadee uncoupling magnets are placed on top to keep things flat and using the bottle of Tarzan’s Grip as a weight, are left to cure for thirty minutes.

 

A progress shot.

 

Transoms complete!

 

Next job is to make a jig for locating the tieplates on the transoms.

Cheers.

Chilcott’s Ck bridge transoms …

Hi all,

After the recent boost in my enthusiasm following the 45 class weathering, I decided to recommence work on the bridge over Chilcott’s Creek.

Following on from the weathering of the girders, I had been thinking of ways to attach the bridge transoms to the girders.

I have decided to use timber transoms, using Kappler Scale Lumber 10” x 6” stripwood, which were then cut to a length of nine scale feet.

These were then stained with some AIM Quick-Age weathering solution.

I had to come up with a way of locating the transoms on the girders and to ensure they are aligned centrally.

I decided to glue a small piece of stripwood on the underside of each transom so it would butt up to the inside edge of the girder.

I made a simple jig to hold a transom and to locate the piece of stripwood which was 6mm from one end.

 

The next stage is to glue the transoms to the girders and then to attach tieplates to the transoms.

Cheers.