Finishing the skewed bridge

The bridge got a set of 3D printed bridge shoes from Shapeways which established what the exact height of the abutments needed to be.  The abutments were made from wood and painted with Model Master concrete and weathered with acrylic wash and then powders.  This one also got some graffiti on it.

The track for this bridge was made up of section of Micro Engineering standard code 55 track with some of the ties removed and replaced with the bridge ties that came with the Central Valley bridge kit.

My Floquil old silver had run out but Model Masters aluminum was a perfect match for the second paint coat.   The bridge then got some weathering and the track assembly was attached to the bridge with E6000 adhesive.

The bridge was set it place with E6000 adhesive on the bottoms of the bridge shoes to secure it.  The tracks were connected to the adjoining sections and secured to the cork road bed with while glue.  I will wait on the ballasting the track until I've done a good bit of testing with a variety of trains.

The skewed bridge

The first bridge I want to create for this new extension of the layout will be the skewed bridge which carries the Western Pacific / Westbound line over the Southern Pacific / Eastbound line.

For a reference, I took some photos of a similar type bridge on the HO layout at the South Bay Historical Railroad Society.  This looks as if it could have been kit bashed from a Central Valley Model Works HO kit.

So this is my version kit bashed from a Central Valley N Scale kit.  I made my own solid headers, cross bracing, and end plates from styrene strip and the skew is the other way to fit in how this bridge will be used on my layout.

And this is my bridge after an airbrush spray of Floquil old silver.  I still need to order some bridge feet and give the whole thing another coat of paint then some weathering.

The bridges of Palisade Canyon

This next expansion of the layout will include one of the most interesting railroad sections of the Palisade Canyon where the Western Pacific constructed a bridge over the earlier built Southern Pacific line.  Both lines cross the river on one side of their approach to the crossing so it is one of those places that modelers like to build but are not so common on the prototype.

Here is a Google satellite image of the area where the skewed bridge is.  I plan to model the 3 bridges noted in blue but not the one noted in yellow.

Here is a closer view of the skewed bridge.   This span has 4 full sections.  My bridge will be somewhat shorter with 2 full sections.  I plan to modify a Central Valley Model Works kit to model this one.

Here is a close up of the third bridge I want have in the scene.  It appears to be a thru girder type bridge about 100ft long with open deck with wood trestles on the approaches.  A dirt road passes under one of the trestle parts.

And last here is a close up of the curved top thru truss bridge.  Looks like it has 5 full sections and is about 150ft long.  For this one I am going to use one of the BLMA 200ft long brass bridges and not model the additional shorter span.

Finishing the thru truss bridge at Golconda

Last summer in the post First crossing of the Humboldt River I had started building a Central Valley Models thru truss bridge for the WP line and was scratch building a segmented concrete trestle for the SP line to match the bridges in this photo that I show again here as reference.




Completing the area around the river is a combination of several different projects including the two bridges that are all interrelated.  In this post I will cover the the finishing of the Western Pacific thru truss bridge which is in the foreground of the scene.

After assembling the Central Valley Model Works bridge,  the abutments that it would rest on were made from 1/4 inch plastic material and installed into the scenery on each side of the river.  They were then brush painted with Testors aged concrete.  One of those is shown in this photo.

I have always noticed that none of the bridge model kits include the bridge shoes that attach the ends of the bridge to the abutments.  I found a set on the KD Models Shapeways shop designed by Dwayne Ward who is modeling the Texas and Pacific in N Scale and has a blog for his T&P layout.

The bridge structure itself was then air brushed with Floquil Old Silver. After drying overnight it was given a wash of Testors black acrylic weathering wash.  The weathering wash really brings out the details such as rivets and the year of construction that is cut into the top plate on each end of the bridge.

I am now applying some weathering powers to highlight some areas of rust.

Here is the same abutment shown in the earlier photo after the same weathering wash had been applied.

Those bridge feet seemed understated until they also received the weathering wash when the bridge was done, now I think they really show off nicely.  I will be ordering more of these for my other bridges.

The ties were removed from the middle of a section of Micro Engineering flex track and the bridge ties that came with the kit were popped into place after ACC was applied to the rail bottoms.

This assembly will be air brushed a rail tie brown color and be ready when the time comes to install the bridge.

First crossing of the Humboldt River

As mentioned in previous posts both rail lines cross the winding Humboldt river many times between Winnemucca and Carlin, Nevada.  In some places only one line crosses the river and in others both lines.  The first full crossing of the river going east from Winnemucca is just east of Golconda.

This shot of the actual location is from Bingmaps Bird's Eye View and is looking toward the south so the orientation is the same as the layout.  The WP line is in the foreground crossing the through truss bridge and the SP in the background crossing the ballasted concrete deck bridge.

I found this nice shot on the internet.  This location is actually a bit east of my modeled area but is typical of the types of bridges used and of the spacing between the lines.

In full size this photo shows great detail of the concrete bridge and I am using it as a reference to scratch built a model of it.


I had considered using the BLMA segmented concrete bridge kit but it only has 3 pilings per bent and this prototype has 6 so I am scratch building this one.  A couple of years ago I scratch built 3 similar type bridges for one of my Ntrak modules.  Those bridges were based on parts from a Tomix kit and were not intended to be of any specific prototype but some of the techniques learned on those will be applied to this bridge.

Here is my start on the segmented concrete bridge using some 1/8" thick clear acyrilic and some 1/4" plastic materials as a core and then adding the more features with Evergreen strip polystyrene materials.

To model the through truss bridge I am building another Central Valley Model Works kit which I have shortened from 4 sections to 3 to match the prototype.  I already have two of these I've done for the Palisades area of the layout.





This scene will be on the next module which is going to be called the Golconda module.  It will be a small module only about 3 ft in length and will be above the paint booth.

2008 to present - Buying and building bridges

One of the things that I really like about the Palisade Canyon are the many thru truss bridges that I could see on the Google satellite images and also in the images I found on the internet.  As I developed my plans to build this layout I started to acquire models of some of those bridges.  If possible I wanted to try to match the prototype bridges as close as I could.

 In 2008 BLMA came out with a brass 4 section thru truss bridge model.  I felt this would be a good match for the WP bridge that is just west of the two palisade bridges so I picked up one.  This is a beautiful bridge with great detail and set my expectations high for any additional bridges.  At about $200.00 for one bridge, that was going to get expensive even if they could be found.  I wished there was a plastic kit bridge that had the same great detail and that could possibly be modified to match particular bridges on this layout.

Then sometime around 2009 I got my wish when Central Valley Model Works introduced an N scale version of their popular HO scale 150 ft thru truss bridge model.  These kits were less than $30.00 and included see thru cross lacing in the girders just like the HO version.  I picked a model 1810 bridge kit and built it to match the WP bridge at Palisade near the tunnels.  To match the prototype, I shortened the bridge by 1 section and modified the bracing at the top of the portals.  This bridge would be the first actual part of the layout to be completed.

Central Valley  then released their model 1815 bridge with portals that were a good match for the SP bridge at Palisade.  This one was also shortened to 3 sections to match the prototype.  Great, now I had good models of all 3 bridges west of the Palisade tunnels.

The three bridges referred to in this post can all be seen in this photo.  The 2 silver colored ones are on the former WP line and the black one is on the former SP line.  This scene is one of the most photographed in the Palisade Canyon and I found this photo on the internet.

These are the two completed Central Valley Model Works bridges.  These are great kits and now they are also selling the components as separate items for those who want to scratch build a specific bridge.

There are still more bridges to build or collect for this layout and this effort is continuing.