This bridge pan came from my old railroad and with a little modification I can adapt it to a location on the new line. This is basically a sheet metal pan made to look a little like a girder bridge that I used at a “duck under” location so it had to be sturdy as everyone used it as a hand hold while ducking under. It is also extra wide because the track was on a radius where it crossed this span. It was/is about 48-52 inches long with both ends cut at a bias.
First I cut the bottom out so I could narrow the bridge to 7 inches, leaving about 2 inches of bottom on each half to fasten to. This work isn’t quite so easy now that I can’t just run down to the sheet metal shop and use all the power tools
I had to cut some off both ends to keep the existing lettering centered and get it down to the finish length of 37 inches.
I used siding boards primed and painted on both sides and sandwiched the bridge bottom pieces between them and bolted them together. I am not to concerned with moisture as this bridge will be under the shed roof covering the yards.
All finished up and ready to test fit. Of course I still have to install the hinging and centering pins after I get all the fine points of installation worked out.
Test fitting to it’s new location, it will hinge on the left. A bit tricky trying to keep the walk through as wide as possible and still get the bridge to clear the roof framing when it is raised. This view really shows the grade, it looks a lot worse than it is.
Once I get it finished up I will post a final picture.
Rick
