Hey Butch; I've purchased a couple of the Central Valley kits in the past ( HO
) for the same type of 'conversion'. And although I hadn't proceeded very far
before having to put everything in storage for awhile, it looked as though the
approach I had decided upon was going to work quite well. After some research
and with the calipers, I'd determined that the size factor for the structural
members scale out close enough to S, but of course the biggest problem is
extending the width and height for more appropriate clearances. The O scale
version IS too 'heavy' looking for sure. I thought of splitting length-wise the
cross members at the centerline; top & bottom, and re-placing an 'oversized'
re-enforcement square or rectangular connecting brace at that point to help
'widen' the bridge (at those intersecting points). It may take away from the
prototypical appearance aspect alittle bit, but if you could live with that
rectangular 'patch' to extend the width a bit more, why not? Some concessions
are a small price to pay to convert a nice, affordable HO product into a
usable, pretty convincing S scale piece. And possibly look at adding spacers to
either side of the horizontal cross-members and components where they contact
the vertical truss sections on the sides, at the top and bottom (and near the
decking) would help. The consistent thickness of material used is up to you of
course, to reach your desired bridge width. Always try things out before
cementing into place. And take time to reason problems. That's the fun aspect
of S scale: working out problems to ultilize what resources we have at our
disposal! Whatever thickness in materials you use for the top portion of the
bridge (used to widen it) needs to be consistant with the thickness of material
added to the bottom of the bridge of course. For extending the height clearance
I would suggest looking at lowering the center decking components as much as
possible while still maintaining a reasonable appearance. You could also gain
some clearance (height) space by altering or removing the cross bracing at the
top of the entrance/exit bridge end openings.In my opinion, those approaches to
'adapting' this or the Central Valley HO offerings, are the least amount of
work to make it work for S. It's either that or go insane trying to extend all
of those braces at the ends where they would connect or be riveted to their
main structural members; And life's too short for that! I'd scratchbuild a
bridge before going to that extreme. Anyway, I hope this helps. Remember, if
everything was readly available to us, (as it is in HO scale) it wouldn't be as
much fun, or much of a challenge. Most of us like to have some bits of
'challenge' to be at least a little different and add some degree of uniqueness
to our models. Mike B.
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:22:14 +0000
Subject: {S-Scale List} Plastruct Pratt Truss Bridge Kit
Just curious. Plastruct offers a Pratt Truss Bidge kit in O, HO an N.
Has anyone on the forum ever built one of these kits to use in S scale. I was
wondering which kit (O or HO) would be closer to the mark for S scale.
One would expect the O kit to be heavy on the beams/girders and the HO kit to
be a little light, BUT, maybe one of these kits is out of scale for for the
intended gauge and will work best for S.
I would appreciate hearing any comments or suggestions.
Thanks,
Butch
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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