Do Over, Part One

“There is never enough time to do it right, but there is always enough time to do it over.”
-John W. Bergman-

As I previously mentioned, my friend and fellow Iowa Interstate modeler Scott Thornton generously gifted me a version of his lattice-truss bridge that he built for his HO scale version of the IAIS Milan Branch. Since my version of a similar lattice truss over the Iowa River on The Hills Line left much to be desired, I hoped I could easily incorporate his version into my layout with little to no issue.

Turns out I had issues…

I had built my original bridge based on a Central Valley Pratt Truss kit due to its easy ability to be modified. However, I kept the length the same as the kit, around 20 inches long. Scott’s version only extends 16 inches.

My original thought was to completely redo the scene, narrowing the river and rebuilding the piers to support the shorter span. However, after several months of thinking about it, I concluded that I didn’t want to destroy the part of the scene that I liked (the river and its surroundings) just to correct the part I didn’t (the bridge).

So, I started with a new version of the same Central Valley kit, this time making a genuine effort to correct the mistakes from the first version. Mainly that involves using thinner lattice materials to better match the prototype. Scott was again generous enough to share his formula for building the perfect trusses while avoiding my “hack it together” approach.

The second time around will create a model I’ll be much more proud to show off. If not, I can always do it over.