# Concrete Bridge Piers...



## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

I need help with a past thread or instructions on building concrete bridge piers please. I want to make some simple forms with plywood or foam board but would like to have some dimensions etc. for reference... Pictures would be cool as well...
thank you


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

If you don't want to reinvent the wheel, you can use either double bull nosed bricks or two single bull nosed bricks for twice the span.


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

Thanks Todd and I actually was measuring these at Menards today but.... I was thinking of this type Pier...


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

[/img]http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/biblegroverr/track%20roadbed%20bridges/Pier_8868%20(Small).jpg


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

why pic not posting?


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Support for the UBB/Forum Code tags (i.e. the ones using the square brackets [ & ] ) was dropped in the last software update. You'll either need to start using the tools available on the 1st Class member's tool-bar in the HTML editor (i.e. Insert Image







& Image Gallery







) or start using the respective HTML element tags (see image below).


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

ok, how do you open each individual folder?


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

LIKE THIS!


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

It's too bad that you are not out here on the left coast. One of the members in our club has made up a "plug" for doing those except the surface looks like stacked "blocks." His plug is adjustable for size.


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I built mine out of simple plywood forms, just cut four trapezoids and screwed them together. I used that vinyl concrete patcher that comes in plastic buckets


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

thanks lownote, 
why not use quikrete with some rebar in place??


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

and... what is the deck built out of?


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## Daniel Peck (Mar 31, 2009)

http://s615.photobucket.com/albums/tt235/danielpeck/Home layout/ 
Look at the brown metal bridge... is this what you are looking for?


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

sure Dan, do you have the details, plans for the piers?


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I really don't know much about cement or concrete or working with either. The patcher is easy to mix and seems to mold well becuase it's fine-grained. I used chainsaw oil as a mold release and put some chicken wire in the mold box as reinforcement

The deck is made of square vinyl downspout, with styrene L and I beam pieces glued to it.


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## Dave F (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Biblegrove RR on 19 Apr 2010 06:49 AM 









LIKE THIS! 



Is that the IC (now CN) bridge at Cairo?


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## Pete Chimney (Jan 12, 2008)

Be careful using rebar in small concrete pours as G-scale bridge piers. Concrete is still somewhat porous and will allow water to enter. As the rebar inside the pier contacts this water it begins to rust it will expand. The expansion of the rusting rebar may split the pier.

An article was published in Garden Railways in the past year or two which detailed failed G-scale bridge piers with rebar inside.


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

Dave, no it is not, found it on google images 
Pete, Thanks for reminding me of that, I remember now. What should be used that won't rust?


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## Dave F (Jan 2, 2008)

Regardless John, I think you need to build a 1:29 scale EXACT duplicate of the Cairo bridge... (It would only be 705 feet long...)


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

I do not have the room, you will have to plan this operation into your new property site! lol


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## Dave F (Jan 2, 2008)

Yeah, but then I'd have to replicate the Ohio River, and barge traffic, and The Westvaco plant in Wickliffe.... I dunno..


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## Ron Hill (Sep 25, 2008)

John, a way to make the piers with the rounded ends is using foam insulation. Since the bottom of the piers are not tapered, it would be just a matter of shaping the foam like a mold and pouring the concrete in the mold. I use a 40 lb. bag of quickcrete mortar with the larger rocks screened out with 1/4" wire cloth. I use 1/2" wire cloth for my reinforcement. Spray the foam with WD40 or something similiar to prevent the motar from sticking to the foam. Allow at least one full day drying before removing from mold. Allow concrete to completely dry then smooth all rough places. I coat my concrete with cement to seal up the concrete and give it a light gray color. A dremel router works really good with carving foam insulation.


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## Daniel Peck (Mar 31, 2009)

Give me the how high and wide you need it and I will make you drawing to your specs. Mine were made from a metal mold which I can reuse over and over again.


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## Biblegrove RR (Jan 4, 2008)

up to 4' high - I wonder if I should use the same pattern as I did the timber trestle? 









But it looks like it would be too wide at the bottom, I think I would rather have more slender ones. I can pour it upside down, create the highth by the amount I pour? Dig hole and bury it in the ground about a foot to 6"?


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## rpc7271 (Jan 2, 2008)

Generally the slope of the sides of a concrete pier would be between 6:1 to 10:1. But you can use whatever you think looks right. These days the d**n architects get ahold of them and then they take on all sort of shapes.


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