 David Stockwell,Bridge Builder Par Excellence No doubt about it, the man knows bridges! Like many of us, it all started when he was a kid. Here's the story, in his own words: When I was a teenager I started my first HO railroad! Had a B&O 0-4-0 switcher and an American Flyer 4-6-4 Hudson and maybe a dozen cars. That only lasted for about a year because I got into a drafting in junior college, and took a part time job. After graduation (1 1/2 years) started working full time. Joined the Navy at 19 in 1955, married at 21 and had a passel of kids. I spent my working life as a Draftsman and Designer for electronics companies. In the 1970's I finally got back into model railroading. I built several layouts over the years, some were completed and some were just false starts. My last layout was started in 2002 and got to be about 70% finished. Just before Christmas 2004 I had breathing problems and spent about a month in the hospital, during which time there were some leaks in my roof and my layout got some water damage. Afterwards I kind of lost interest in the layout so I tore it down and sold off everything, a lot of it through EBAY. I decided to try my hand at building bridges and see if they would sell on EBAY. For my bridge designs I mainly use Model Railroader article's and their Bridges, Trestle & Tunnels book. To date I have sold about 50 bridges in the last 2 years. Some of them were custom bridges for returning customers. |
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His bridges, as he notes, are built from drawings, plans and photos of the real thing. He uses the real thing to make them, too: basswood. What he builds is what is really there in the real world, only in miniature. Like many of us, Dave has grown tired of Ebay and has very generously asked me if I would be kind enough to tell his story and provide a selling venue for his work. Would I be kind enough? You BET I would, in a New York minute! Pictures of some of his work are below. If you'd like to engage Dave for a project, send him an email or check my booth on Bonanzle using links below. I'm glad you're here, Dave. Adds a little class to the place. Here is some of Dave's work: |
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 Pony Bridge |
 Pony & Trestle |
 Howe Truss #1 |
 Howe Truss #2 |
 Curved Trestle |
 200 Foot Deck Truss Bridge |
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 232 Foot Deck Truss Bridge |
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