Painting a bridge

[Anonymous]

I have a swanky new Atlas 130' Curved Chord Bridge which will span 18" on my layout. I'm modelling 1940-1950 Steam era. What colour paint combination would be appropriate for this era for this style of bridge? The model is made of styrene plastic and appears to be riveted steel. It may not actually be appropriate in its contruction for a 1940's steam layout, but I needed a long bridge and this one fit the bill.

Appreciate your input...

Trevor
( I swear that some day I will get a cool tag line)[:D]

[orsonroy]

You can't go wrong with flat black and a little rusty weathering.

Some roads did paint their bridges silver or oxide, so you might want to let us know what your road is.

[Anonymous]

Sorry no help on the road....I am using my own fictional road (Rocky Shores Rail Road - R.S.R.R.). It's a coastal layout. So no prototype would exist for it. I have looked around for actual pictures of similar type bridges and most seem to be steel coloured with rust/weathering or oxide with rust/weathering.

Thanks for your quick reply orsonroy. I look forward to a few more suggestions. Perhaps you can tell me which colours of paint and wearthering products you would use.

Thanks gang,
Trevor
(I swear some day I will get a cool tag line)[:D]

[Anonymous]

I have a Walthers single track truss bridge towards the back of my layout (it spans part of a window opening), and I gave it a coat of Polly Scale grimy black. It has enough gray in it that it gives the bridge a bit of an 'off in the distance' look. When I get around to it, I'll add some weathering with the Bragdon Weathering Chalks I picked up recently (and love using!).

One thing you'll want to add to the bridge after you lay down the base color is some darker black on the girders over the track, to represent staining from smoke and diesel soot over the years. And of course a streak of Oily Black down the center of the track to represent the oil drips from the locos.

[Anonymous]

If you paint the bridge a light color like the silver or aluminum crud it up with an india ink and alcohol wash. Especially below the tracks.

Bob

[Anonymous]

Great suggestions! Thanks to those who responded.

Trevor

(I swear that some day I will get a cool tag line)

[twhite]

I found a technique that has worked well on my bridges (and I have LOTS!). I first spray the bridge with grimy black, then lightly overspray with roof brown and boxcar red, this gives it a hint of 'rust' . Just hit the bridge VERY lightly (from about two feet away) with the latter two colors. It works for me.
Tom

[orsonroy]

I like the grimy black and rail brown technique too. I'll occasionally highlight some parts near the underside of the bridge with oxide red to represent new rust, but that often looks too cartoonish. In the 1940s and early 1950s that I model, manual labor is still cheap, and paint crews are regularly sent to lineside structures.

I recently sketched out & measured the old IC depot in Genoa, IL, so I could model it. While measuring things, I ran across it's last paint date: April 1952!

[cwclark]

I painted a span bridge gray primer and then used pastel chalks to weather it...Chuck

[steveblackledge]

i have some atlas girder bridges that look spot on, first i sprayed them flatt black them i used a product called instant rust, you paint on an iron based base coat thats dark grey in colour in the places were you would get rust on the bridges, then you paint it with the second part which is an activator solution, within hours you get a rusty plastic bridge. The process goes on for months with the rust getting darker and older looking, the activator solution also does a good job of weathering the black paint.
you can use this stuff on rolling stock of any type but i would be carefull doing a loco due to the possibilities of it getting "in the works"
I did a Gondola with this stuff and it to looks spot on, [tup]

[Bikerdad]

You could paint it almost any color you want, then just weather it a bit or a lot, depending on how recent a paint job is represented . During my recent cross country trip, I saw green bridges, red bridges, white bridges, light gray, dark gray, black, brown, and blue bridges. Don't recall any orange or yellow bridges, but they wouldn't surprise me.

[randybc2003]

I have a mix I call "Black Steel" - equal parts Loco Black and Gun Mettal. You could put a finish coat of "Boxcar Red" on the bridge, as that would be the paint of steel boxcars.

You bridge is in a coastal environemnt. [:O] Engineering and Maintance would work their buns off defending that steel against rust and airborn moisture. Coastal facilities are always defended heavily against rust - and ponding water is a structure's death warrant. Special attention is always paid to draining the structure. As an example, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge is steel frame and shell, and is ALWAYS being painted. I am informed that when they finish painting the bridge from one end to the other, it is time to go back and start over.

I would paint the bridge with a "firm" color, only SLIGHTLY (Almost not at all) weathering with rust. Grime, smoke, oil might be applied a little heavier. For some whimsy, put a MOW crew out there, painting the bridge!!. ( I thing SF's Golden Gate is a shade or ORANGE.

[Anonymous]

I'm through railroad bridges all the time on the Gulf and East Coasts. Almost every rail bridge is black.
ONe thing I have yet to see on a model railroad bridge over the water is the fender system that keeps ships and tows from hitting the actual bridge structure and piers. they are heavy horizontal timbers, any where from 8" square to 12" square with pilings and dolphins behind to absorb any shock from an impact.
The horizontal timbers are always weathered gray with black streaks where tows have slid down the fenders. 600' of steel barges will really smoke the timbers when it slides down it at 6 to 8 knots.