Interesting bridge design

[v6TransAM]

(will try and update with pics trow hopefully)

My son(5 yrs old) and I have started working on a few Lego train projects and kicking around some ideas.

For now his idea(wants a working Shay since we went to hesston.org this past weekend) will have to wait a bit since I am trying to get him to do his own parts hunting and figure out his own solutions to problems and how to make more complicated stuff than he has been working with.

So as I compromise, for now we are working on a bridge for a train to go over and room to go under.

He did all the counting and sorting after showing him three plates = 1 brick tall, etc.

We ended up with a height of 12 bricks + 1 plate tall to clear the headlight on the Emerald Night clone since it is our tallest engine.

It is short, at only 2 straight sections in length, but I was trying to lean him toward the side of caution because I know he is only 5 and it does need to be a little extra sturdy

Letting him goof around we have piers at each end that look like an capital I, with a large flat plate on the bottom. The part we kind of stumbled upon and he loved was finding the extra single rail pieces we pulled out of the grey bin. He ended up sticking them on the bridge sides from the center section. We both likes it better than the technic beams you usually see on the sides. After some engineering ideas we found a nice way to make it work as the cross braces from the center to the piers. Worked great until we tried to fit the engine underneath to find out we we too low by about 2 plates........

So I did have to help him rework it and we have one side test fitted currently and all engine clear with 1-2 plate clearance now. So tomorrow it will be completed and I will be beating geometry into the head of a 5 yr old as we work on the approach sections Think we went about an hour straight tonight with him searching for pieces, counting out the correct heights of all the sections involved. He will be learning his addition and subtraction a lot faster now.

I'll try and get a pic or two to this tomorrow, been busy and started a new job today actually, so it was weird being home from work by 3:30pm and only a 8 hour day.

This is my son Ben, we built it using his ideas and what he wanted to try or we stumbled upon.

Side view where you can see how we used the old style rail as the side reinforcement, that was all him sticking parts on stuff as I was trying a

couple other things.

Top view where you can see how we did the deck and used the old style rail as the guard rail on the deck bridge

Just a general show of how much of a mess we make in his room lol. We were mostly jury rigging the supports and the approaches. We used a 1 block per track section for the rise.

I think it was a successful first project. I get a good hour to hour and a half out of Ben when we work on stuff like this. Maybe tomorrow we an con Mom into letting us use the living room.

Edited October 28, 2015 by v6TransAM

[marook]

Sounds like a great project!

Building the bridge section seems to me, as the easy part - it's all the ramps up to the bridge that takes time and structure.

Here is one I did some months ago (two actually), where the one is used as part of the ramp on the one side:

IMG_1331 by Marook, on Flickr

If you happen to have long technic bricks, it's easy to make long ramp sections. The basic rule is that you can make elevation of 2 plates for each track secment (16 studs), or the train will have a hard time go up the elevation.

Here is my latest project, spanning 64 studs:

Train bridge over water by Marook, on Flickr

Have fun, and always ask if you have questions. Looking forward to see your project! :-)

[v6TransAM]

Looking good marook. That working drawbridge is pretty awesome to see in action.

I have to build what he wants/likes and it has to meet the 5 yr old maxim of not falling apart under use(also sees a 2 yr old on occasion).

I knew it was going to take up a lot of room, but geez, the approach and descent are 14 straight tracks each and 2 more for the actual bridge itself.

I'm going to end up digging out the rest of the Enlighten track he doesn't know about and some of the ME model track.

[zephyr1934]

You just need to sell the idea to your 2 yr old and with an absolute majority is there anything your wife can say about the living room? (Yeah, I know, you live an a benevolent monarchy, but it would be worth keeping a straight face long enough for the grins). Seriously though, nice design no matter what the age and a great activity.

[v6TransAM]

You just need to sell the idea to your 2 yr old and with an absolute majority is there anything your wife can say about the living room? (Yeah, I know, you live an a benevolent monarchy, but it would be worth keeping a straight face long enough for the grins). Seriously though, nice design no matter what the age and a great activity.

Thanks man, that means a lot coming from you. With the little bozos, simplicity/strength/looks is the adage. I think we kind of created a very nice yet realistic design.

I know we can get away with setting it up for demo purposes, just want to see what else he will do on his own once we get it all put up.

[Man with a hat]

Bridges are great. And this is no exception. Actually quit clever use of the old style rail track piece.

Good luck with securing the living room

[ecmo47]

You just need to sell the idea to your 2 yr old and with an absolute majority is there anything your wife can say about the living room? (Yeah, I know, you live an a benevolent monarchy, but it would be worth keeping a straight face long enough for the grins). Seriously though, nice design no matter what the age and a great activity.

I think you mean a benevolent MOMarchy!

[v6TransAM]

Preliminary testing is looking good, Emerald Night works okay and we loaded up the diesel from the cargo set, with 2 long cars and piled PF motors, remotes and tenders in them for weight and all was good.

Need to rebuild good supports for one run and assemble it all in one piece, might not be until tomorrow

Edited October 28, 2015 by v6TransAM

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Good luck with securing the living room

Lol!

Very nice old school design!

[v6TransAM]

Yeah! The little goof was good today and helped her clean up the house.

So when I got home from work we were able to con her into part of the living room to set up shop.

So we have one giant loop with one side being the trestle and bridge and a longish siding on the other side.

Have a switch off of that to go under the bridge than connect back to itself where the trestle transitions back to level ground.

[peterab]

Yeah! The little goof was good today and helped her clean up the house.

So when I got home from work we were able to con her into part of the living room to set up shop.

You have now established a bridgehead (literally) ... so now run a branch line into the kitchen :-)

[v6TransAM]

You have now established a bridgehead (literally) ... so now run a branch line into the kitchen :-)

I was thinking about it, obviously I have tons of curves left over(who doesn't???). I still have another 15-20 straight Enlighten tracks and I never dipped into any of the ME stuff from the Kickstarter package I got either lol

So far bridge and runs have proven quite sturdy minus one incursion based off the 2 yr old :-) They put it all back together while I was at work, so all is good. The two bozos love it.

Edited October 31, 2015 by v6TransAM