When I did my tall steel trestle I built the thing and then I cut the plaster piers to aprox. size and put them up to the bents with shims under them to the foam base and filled in over the shims with plaster to match the plaster cloth that I used as a top coat over the foam, no muss no fuss.
I decided to go with silver to blend in with the "dirty gray" wall color. I just hit the structure with some old automotive engine paint that I had around for years, then weathered it with some powders to give it a hint of rust, concentrating on where the bents meet the main structure . I brushed some soy sauce on the plaster piers to simulate rust and dirt and sealed them with some matte acrylic spray before setting them in place. All-in-all I am pretty happy with how it turned out especially considering it was a quick project.
Huntington Junction - Freelance based on the B&O and C&O in coal country before the merger... doing it my way. Now working on phase 3. - Walt
For photos and more: http://www.wkhobbies.com/model-railroad/
HObbyguy:
The viaduct looks really good! I like the colours and the weathering.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
It took me five tries but I finally was able to match the colors of the original wall on new castings. A little static grass, some more vegetation, and ballast on the track and this section will be finished. Now moving on around the bend and concentrating on the landscape under the truss bridge.. Its a whole lot more complicated and will take a bunch more time.
My layout plan has six bridges. Three have been in service for some time now and this is the fourth. In every case so far I've found managing the abutments to be trickier than building the actual bridges. This time I just continued the plaster wall and formed the terrain with foam. May not be prototypical for a viaduct but as long as it is believable I am happy.
I just spent some time on your site Lion and took a ride around your latest video. Looks like you have been staying busy since I've been off the grid.
I took the photo with my I-phone. I used to pull out the SLR and do all sorts of color adjustments but I have the lighting in the room balanced nicely now, so its just point and shoot. All the track painting was hand-brushed using a various shades of Model Master acrylics. Actually quite easy.
The viaduct bridge piers are fixed in place now. I just used a bit of Sculptamold to set the heights and secure them and I'll use some Gypsolite to really lock them in place once I get to finishing the terrain. With the bridges functional I went ahead and laid connecting track to phase 1 of my layout. This is letting me run all of my locos and long cars through and over both the bridges and to check curves and clearances. Of course the bridges will have to be removed while I work underneath, but its been fun running trains on them.
The biggest unexpected challenge- I built a stone wall two years ago that now needs to extend to the viaduct, and don't remember exactly how I finished it. I figured on "planting" some more ivy on the wall to help hide the seam but I have yet to get close to matching the colors on new castings. The wall really needs to go up before getting to work on finishing the bridge abutment so a bit frustrating. Hopefully this photo will make a good "before" picture and the "after" will look much better.
Nice workmanshio, and very nice photo.
Must be Golden Gate Bridge.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
I've got the track for the truss bridge painted now, and connecting track laid down around the curve between the bridges so I can test run a train back and forth. I really like the way this one is turning out. I'll get back to work on the viaduct this weekend.
Looking good! That brass bridge looks like the official "Aztec Gold" shade of yellow used for Pittsburgh's bridges. I like it!
Nice bridges Walt! The track work and walkway on the brass bridge look really good.
After a long layoff from railroading I am back to working on my layout. Reminding those that were following along, I had just bought a very nice double track truss bridge, and also started construction of an ME viaduct kit when I fell off the grid. Since I haven't posted any progress for a long time just want to share how its going- just for fun. Both of the bridges are on the same section of track and are the focal pieces to phase 2 of my design.
The ME viaducts have been covered here a bunch in the past. This one is very simple, just meant to break up a long elevated run close to the backdrop. It went together pretty easily and I topped it off with Walthers bridge track. I cast the piers from plaster and the next step is to get them to fit up to the bridge trusses. (The level is just there to keep the track flat while I work on the support.) The area under the bridge will be heavily scenic'd with brush and trees, with rip-rap on the sides. We'll see how it all turns out in a few weeks.
I searched for months for a double-track through truss bridge kit to fit my layout design without much luck when I finally ran across this brass bridge. Pricy, but a very nice piece. And at the time my budget was not a big issue.
The brass is very pretty but it has just enough patina to look realistic, and after finding a prototype on the web that is painted a similar color I decided not to re-finish it. But it was not obvious how to support the track properly, the tie width on the sections of ME and Central Valley bridge track that I had on hand was too wide, and the brass walkway and platforms looked just wrong. So there were some challenges to resolve that I haven't seen addressed here before.
Good thing that I decided to use Walthers bridge track on the viaduct, because I discovered that the tie width was just right for the truss bridge. And after studying some prototype pics how to lay down lumber on the beams to support the track became pretty obvious. I cut the main beams from scale lumber, painted with cheap acrylic, and glued them in place with CA. Then capped them with thinner strips of lumber.
I still had to do something about the brass walkway. I tried painting but that wasn't going work. So I just used some more scale lumber to cap the planks.
Much better. The track isn't glued down yet and the next step is to weather the ties a bit and paint the rails. Then I'll attach the track permanently with Plyobond, probably just at the ends since the bridge track should be very stable in-between.
This area of the layout is very track-heavy with some complex elevation changes, so it will be a good long while before I have completed scenes to share. But I should be running trains across the new area of the layout and accross the bridges very shortly!