Of Christmas shopping and time travel

The Peter-Austin Trans Canada Highway Bridge Set I bought doesn't include instructions or a planning guide, so I have no idea how complete it is, or what the manufacturer suggested one could build. However, I figure they must have included enough parts to build the bridge on the box top, so I decided to see if I had enough components for that project. 

I sort of did. There are enough girders, beams, and stubs to build the bridge, but not enough unbroken ones for the approach structures. Also, there're enough road insert panels for the bridge's elevated roadway, but, once that's in place, there aren't near enough for the approaches.

As well, even though I have plenty of diagonal members, they are quite brittle, and it turns out most of their holes are just a little bit too small to connect to the girders. If I radius the holes just a little with an X-Acto knife, they fit quite well. I didn't want to go and fix them all, so I just installed a handful and left it at that. I should note though that as you install the diagonals you can feel the entire structure stiffen up. Without them the bridge isn't bad rigidity-wise, but some flex and sag are noticeable.

Although the box top says it's a set for building highway bridges, it appears to be able to support HO scale trains. The Kenner planning books noted their's could, so I thought the Peter-Austin sets probably could too. For this application I'd say all of the diagonals need to be installed if the box top bridge is going to support HO trains. Also, I think the set's approaches are likely too steep for trains, so the owner would have to take care to provide their own.

As for O scale trains, I don't think this particular bridge is big enough. It would probably need to be double the size, and I suspect you'd need at least two sets for such a project.

I should have done this first, but after I built the bridge I had a look in the Kenner planning guide to see if they had the same bridge. They did. They called it the Double Diamond Cantilever. Mine doesn't look like a diamond because I left off all the diagonals. The planning book's photo gives a good idea of what the approaches should look like.

Obviously, I then went and built one from the Kenner parts I had bought. I found the Kenner diagonals had the same problem as the Peter-Austins: brittle, and the holes were a bit undersize. Again, I left off the diagonals as I didn't want to damage them. One difference though is the Kenner horizontal and vertical girders seem to have lost a lot of their elasticity over the last 60 or so years. The Peter-Austins still seem quite spry. When I was building the Kenner bridge it seemed the components kept falling part when the bridge was in various partially completed states, and didn't hold together until near the very end when everything was locked in place. No doubt if I had added diagonals along the way this wouldn't have happened. It seemed the Peter-Austin parts were still pliant enough for the joints to hold together regardless of how complete the structure was.

I don't have any Kenner road panels, so I just laid a piece of track over the horizontals to see how the bridge held up with an old HO train. It was fine, but it would have been much better with diagonals. 

A couple things my Kenner parts included that the Peter-Austin set didn't were flag poles and signs. The Kenner signs included one that announced: Kenner Bridge MCMLVIII. Or, 1958 for us. So, I'm assuming the parts date from 1958.

Well, if you're planning on cranking up your time machine today for a little late '50s or early '60s Christmas shopping, that's my review of these two fine building sets :-)