Freelanced steel viaduct - Part 2

This is the conclusion of a two part post on the building and installation of an over 300 foot long steel viaduct made from Micro Engineering bridge parts.  These were some the things I added to complete the steel viaduct and the surrounding area.

The code 40 rail that comes with the section of Micro Engineering flex track was used to make guard rails over the viaduct.  These were glued into place with ACC (super glue) being aligned by the small bumps that are on the ties for this purpose.  The guard rails were held in place with clamps and pins until the ACC set.

The track was hand painted with Testors rail brown acrylic paint.  The section of standard track between the viaduct and the skewed through truss bridge got ballasted with Arizona Rock and Minerals ballast.

The bridge and concrete piers got some weathering from a combination of washes and weathering powders.  I added some scribble from a dry transfer set to the bridge above one of the piers and am considering some graffiti in a few other areas but will need to find some very small graffiti decals.

Even desert areas like central Nevada have brush and shrubs.  I use a combination of Woodland Scenics clump foliage and Scenic Express prairie grass tufts attached with a dot of E6000 adhesive on the end of a bamboo skewer.

Adding all those shrubs and prairie grass tufts may seem like a tedious task but it's actually quite enjoyable while running a train around the layout and listening to a ball game or music on the radio.

An area like this on a layout lends itself to many possible mini scenes.  Fishermen, boaters, hobos, bridge painters, and more are all things that would work here.  For now I have my canoes and some hikers admiring the bridge.