Basement Find:

Great find.

Nice bridge Tom and it looks like it was made for your layout. I like the history lesson, it certainly adds to a find like that. I am familiar with the Killbros gravity box wagons, they were/are all over the place.

TJ

Wow Tom!  Great find and what a wonderful back story!  Enjoy your new bridge

Looks perfect on the layout Tom. Great back story too.

I just found out an interesting tidbit of information.  It turns out that Linus Kill and his wife lived three doors north of our house.  I remember a Mrs. Kill living there, but I never met her husband.  He passed in 1994. 

Tom

Love the thin cross-sections of the bridge members; also, since almost all "O scale" bridges are actually too small - even the nice ones - due to practical considerations, this one is actually appears much more in scale regarding the switcher pictured.

The member cross-sections may be a bit too thin in fact for 1:48 - but the impression is realistic. Wish that I had found it.... Great piece.

I finally had a chance to work on the bridge project this week.  I ended up cutting a plywood base that matched the previous bridge deck dimensions.  I fit it to the metal bridge and cut overlength ties.  I spaced the ties to match the tie spacing on the piece of Gargraves track that traverses the span.  I added end stringers and a walkway on one side.  After tweaking the track alignment all is well.

Tom

Bridge looks great.

Nice bridge....but shouldn't there be cross braces/supports at center span?

@prrhorseshoecurve posted:

Nice bridge....but shouldn't there be cross braces/supports at center span?

Yes, that would be realistic, but I would think that would impact the originality of this vintage structure.

"welding shop". "grain boxes". Sounds like a place that could engineer a sturdy bridge....neat find, and since you have tracked down other info, maybe you can sleuth out what happened to rest of it?

Nice bridge and a great piece of history, thanks for sharing it with us.

Well done!

Peter

@Tom Densel posted:

...snip... My "official" bridge inspector is giving his final approval:

I have the perfect spot for the bridge on my layout.

The friend's father, Kenny, gave me some background information on the board and bridge.  Kenny's friend's father, Linus Kill, co-owned a welding shop with his brothers.  He built the board and bridge for his son(s).  There was actually more to the train board than currently exists, but the whereabouts are unknown.  As the friends grew older the interest in the trains dwindled. After Kenny and his wife had a couple of boys, the friend gave the layout to him.  I talked to one of the boys who told stories of launching trains off the track from going too fast.  Kenny didn't know when these items were built, but I found some history on the family that indicates that Linus didn't join his brothers in the business until after WWII.  They had to have been built between then and 1954 as that is when the Kill Brothers welding shop changed their name to Killbros and began to build grain gravity boxes (hopper wagons).  Killbros became a nationally known manufacturer of gravity boxes.  While the company has since been sold, the manufacturing plant still exists in Delphos and is a major local employer.

I thought it was really neat to find a piece of local history that I can use on my layout.  When I get the bridge installed it will be christened "Kill Bridge".

Tom

I, too, had a similar "bridge/track inspector".

Anyway, on to the real reason for my post. Why not print the story that you posted (and the later addendum), put it in an envelope and tape it to underside of the bridge? That way the history of the bridge would remain with it for future owners to know.

I several scratch-built, hand-lettered B&O freight cars that I bought thirty-seven years ago then I wrote on the bottom of the cars the date and price that I got them for. I was told verbally who made them and when but I failed to write that down so all of that is lost forever. I can estimate when they were built by the built date painted on the car but not by whom. What little I remember is that they were built concurrently with the ones arriving at the B&O Mt. Claire shops. Here is a photo of the hand-lettering:

Note the "O-58" classification. B&O used "O" for gondolas and this early (7-39) pig flat had sides so it was classed as a gondola instead of a flat car.

Great looking bridge, and it sure fits right in!   Looks like it's wide enough for two tracks.

The only remaining task is to make it a lift bridge so you don't have to duck under it.

@PRRMP54 posted:

".

Anyway, on to the real reason for my post. Why not print the story that you posted (and the later addendum), put it in an envelope and tape it to underside of the bridge? That way the history of the bridge would remain with it for future owners to know.

That's a great idea, Dave!

In hindsight, I should have painted the bridge structure bright orange, as this is the color Killbros used on their wagons.

Tom

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

The only remaining task is to make it a lift bridge so you don't have to duck under it.

The bridge actually lifts out for a clear path into the room.  There are brass pins that protrude from the bottom of the bridge that fit into sockets on the layout for electrical connections.   The socket with the red wire also acts as a switch to kill the power to the track for about three feet on either side of the bridge when it is removed.  Between the pins and the plywood base, track alignment is always dead on.

Tom

@Tom Densel posted:

The bridge actually lifts out for a clear path into the room.  There are brass pins that protrude from the bottom of the bridge that fit into sockets on the layout for electrical connections.   The socket with the red wire also acts as a switch to kill the power to the track for about three feet on either side of the bridge when it is removed.  Between the pins and the plywood base, track alignment is always dead on.

GMTA!