The transfer bridge on the plans are twice as long as I’ve normally seen them. Fast Tracks sells the laser cut parts to make one like the Bronx Terminal had. There are a few differences that I would have done if I were designing the cut file but they’ve made it easy to get started. One could just glue together the pieces and have a simple one done or you can choose the “non quick way” like I normally do and detail it into a fine model worthy of being an award winning model, and making it look very close to prototype photos. So far I’ve only just begun and put way more hours into it than I expected I would but I’m excited at how it is going to turn out.
If you notice, the word bridge is in the name so it makes sense that it literally is build similar to a bridge. The purpose of a transfer bridge is to connect land with a car float. One end is connected to land and the other end is raised up and down depending on the level of the water so it connects with the car float. Because it is so long I will have to power the tracks for the locomotive and with using an idler flat car it will reach onto the unpowered car float. If I ever want the loco on the car float I will have to “5-0” it.
Many car floats have three tracks. The center track is accessed like a turnout that is on the car float but the points are on the transfer bridge. With the limited space to get a person’s hand in using a manual ground throw, and not wanting to make it permanent using an under the track Tortoise, I decided to use a double track gauntlet instead. This will make the track on the transfer bridge double tracked and the points are on the main base (land) just before the transfer bridge.
I have ordered NBW (nut-bolt-washer) castings and more rods. Almost 200″ of rods and 400+ NBW. That is a lot of holes to drill! Luckily I recently got a drill press for my Dremel motor tool. I tried one by hand and it took forever and hurt my hand. The Dremel is very quick! There will probably be more detail than anyone will notice but I enjoy making a great model, not just an average one.
Follow along in the pictures as I build my transfer bridge. Click the image to enlarge. You can click on the right or left to scroll through them large but to read the captions you need to be in the thumbnail view. At the end I will include the write-up for AP evaluation which will have more details about the build than just the captions provide.
CONSTRUCTION
Based on the prototype of the Bronx Terminal transfer bridge, its main structure is a “kit” from Fast Tracks. I use the term kit loosely as it was 11 laser cut pieces. One could glue it together with some flex track and I suppose it could work. However I want it to be as good as I can make it by adding parts (listed below) and making it more like the prototype. The “plans” were simply an isometric drawing which were useless. I added NBW castings, rods, toggle bolts, laid my own tracks and more wood decking. The rods were blackened with BlackenIt and the toggle bolts were blackened with Neolube. Cardstock was used to make the metal brackets as well as styrene, depending on where they were located.
Over 440 NBW castings and 100 rods (see below) needed to be installed which required a lot of tiny holes to be drilled. After doing just one by hand my hand hurt a lot. Luckily I had recently gotten a drill press attachment for my Dremel. It went so much quicker, and straighter for the long holes. Doing the holes over the cardstock I still did by hand because they were shorter and easier to be precise on those ones.
I figured between 5-10 hours should be enough time to build but my rough estimate is over 45 hours spanning 15 days. At some point the tediousness of the project turned into a tranquil, relaxing exercise.
DETAIL
The NBW (Nut-Bolt-Washer) castings are very small. Two different sizes were used. 234 smaller (2 ¼” nut 5” washer) NBW from San Juan Model Co (formerly Grandt Line) and 208 larger (4 ½” nut 7” washer) NBW from Tichy Train Group were used. Plus the ones that “went flying”! If you grabbed them wrong with the tweezers they would fly to nowhere-land. 104 rods (0.025 phosphor bronze wire) were blackened and cut to about 2 ¼”. Holes were drilled from the top and bottom to make it look like the rods go all the way through. Small pieces of styrene were cut to look like metal plates which covered the holes. Another set of holes were drilled on top of the styrene for the NBW to go in. Three laser cut pieces were glued together to make the criss cross look. The rods were glued in first and didn’t always line up so lining up the NBW is better visually done after the three pieces are glued together.
The prototype looks like the water side of the transfer bridge had more lumber so I added filler pieces that I sanded and shaped to ultimately make it look like a larger, beefier pieces of lumber to form an IXX.
For the tracks I made a template for the bridge tie spacing and on one side wider to accommodate the gauntlet track instead of having moving points in a hard to reach spot. The PC ties I cut on a mini table saw from scrap/leftover pieces of PC board. About every 9th tie is a PC tie and the others are wood I cut from long lengths of stripwood using the Swingblade produced by Scott Perry.
When the track was glued to the base it had to line up perfectly with the car float. Once in place the toggle bolts were attached to the transfer bridge and the car float. They are a set bought from Sea Port Model Works. The toggle bolts are working, meaning they retract to move the car float away and when it is in place they slide forward to keep the rails in perfect alignment so the cars don’t derail.
More strip wood was added on top of the ties for the workers to more easily walk on the bridge.
CONFORMITY
This transfer bridge is at least twice as long as I’ve seen in kits and other prototypes. Since I am modeling the Bronx Terminal the base is what Fast Tracks offered online but more than that, when I place it on top of the Bronx Terminal plans scaled to HO size, it fits perfectly. Having said that, I think there was a lot more work because it is so long. See the included photos. BTW, I used to call this type of structure a float bridge but technically a transfer bridge connects land to a floating object such as a railroad car float. A float bridge is a bridge that itself floats supported by pontoons.
FINISH & LETTERING
I used prototype photos of the Bronx Terminal transfer bridge, model photos of other but similar ones plus a couple trestles over water to try to get the most realistic coloring. I used a spray can the same color I paint my ties for the base coat because I know the wood would be treated. I sprayed the three sides and the deck before they were assembled because I knew it would be hard to get into all the tight spots. I also individually painted and weathered the three railings. I did a rust color on all the metal parts followed up by a grey, allowing some of the rust color to show through. I also used several colors of “wet” acrylics to weather the wood parts. I did the same to the ties on the deck, like I do on my modules, painting the ties random colors then oil stains down the center. I wasn’t sure about adding the “walking boards” on top of the ties but really like how they turned out.
I used a different technique to stain the scale 2×10 boards. The strip wood was laid out and several colors of artists’ chalks were scraped onto them so the powder fell on them randomly. Then an eye dropper was used to drop isopropyl alcohol onto the boards and using a paint brush pushed the mixture around until the boards were all coated. Because a different technique was used for the main part of the transfer bridge I used this last technique a little bit on the main structure to tie everything together to make it look more uniform.
I used Neolube to blacken the toggle bolt. I didn’t want to paint it – the Neolube has a graphite solution so I thought it would not only blacken it but help make it a smoother action as I want it to be operational. The metal pockets for the toggle bolt are typically yellow on the prototype but I have had a hard time with yellow acrylic paint so I decanted some spray paint into the lid of the paint and used a micro brush to paint it yellow. After the overall weathering mentioned above I think it looks great!
SCRATCH BUILT
Except for the 11 laser cut pieces for the base and side rails, all the rest is considered scratch built. Based on the judging guidelines: A model is considered “scratchbuilt” if at least 90% of the pieces/parts (other than those specifically exempted in each category) are fabricated by the modeler. This is a quantitative assessment based on the number of pieces, with no weight given for complexity.
So I would, according to that definition, call this a scratch built model.
Over 100 pieces of wire for the rods,
442 NBW castings,
26 PC ties cut from leftover pieces,
128 wood ties,
102 pieces of cardstock and styrene for metal pieces and
at least 7 other pieces of 16” scale 2×10 strip wood was used.
As noted above, the basic pieces were added to so as to bring this model more in line with the actual prototype which is a very unique transfer bridge.
