In my last post I showed how I was working on the track plan for the Carlin section of the layout. This will be about 11 feet long spanning 2 sections of bench work and will be the last part of the layout to have scenery. The Southern Pacific / west bound track will make one last pass over the Humboldt river on this layout after emerging from the tunnels. This is shown in the photo below from Google maps with the SP track being the one on the left. Notice how the track on the right which is the Western Pacific / east bound track remains on one side of the river. It does not cross the river until the track is almost to Carlin a couple miles away.
Here is view of the area where a cross over track connects from the WP track over the the SP track. This was put in so that an east bound SP train can enter the SP yard for crew changes and I suppose fuel as well. Both the WP track and the crossover track cross the river at this point.
Of course in the model world we most often have to compress our scenes. So on my layout all three tracks will cross the river on the smaller of the two Carlin sections. The river has been cut into the deck of this section and a box structure was built to support the river bed. The bridge on the SP line is going to be the Micron Arts bridge featured in this post from last June. The bridges for the two crossing toward the rear are to be determined but will be understated as I want the Micron Arts bridge to be the focal point of the scene.
