I have an ho scale layout and want to lay a walthers single track bridge with a micro engineering ballasted 50’ deck girder bridge on both sides of the bridge. I was wondering if anyone had good recommendations for bridge abutments and piers or had some pictures that they could share to give me some ideas how to do this.
Thanks, scott
HUH? Your question doesn’t make sense to me – you want to put micro engineering bridges on both SIDES of a Walthers bridge? Or do you mean both ENDS?
There’s a big difference between sides and ends.
These are Central Valley bridges in series. I used Chooch bridge abutments and middle pier. They have several sizes, and I used ones that were taller than needed so I could cut them down to desired overall height. They are resin, which was easy to cut to rough height on my small bandsaw, then sand further to exact height on a bench belt sander. I had to use shims on some of the bridge shoes to get the right height; e.g., the two bridges had different rail shoe to roadbed heights and so one of the bridges needed some shimming at the pier.
http://www.choochenterprises.com/html/tunnels_.html
Something like this?
http://okbridges.wkinsler.com/railroad/grandbridge1p.jpg
Doing a Google search on Railroad Bridge Abutments will get you quite a few photos of both prototypes and models.
Steve S
Here are a ton of photos I took of a bridge in Maryland (CSX Thomas sub) including lots of close ups.
http://www.lkorailroad.com/railroad-bridge-in-the-mountains/
I made my own out of foam. That’s a Styrene I-Beam I used to make the indents with. Just like the real RR you can make bridge supports to fit any situation.That is also a scratch built bridge made out of Micro engineering girders, beams and styrene. The bridge was on a hill and a curve and there was nothing on the market that fit the bill, so I made my own.
Here is the same pier on the right. Weathering not yet finished. They actually look a lot better in person than in the photo. The cost? Too low to be measured.[(-D]
Good Luck.
i mean both ends of the walthers single truss bridge
I like the look of your pier how did you make the mortar look different than the bricks or stone? Do you use a hot knife to cut your foam boards?thanks
I just cut the foam with a knife and gave it a sanding where required. After I have the bricks carved out I rough it up with what ever I have handy and paint the piers a dark brown, black would be even better. Starting with the absence of colour gives a much better finished look. While the paint is still wet I sprinkled tile thinset all over it and dry brushed it off. You could also use grout, or polyfilla powder or any number of construction leftovers. This is where the mortar comes from. I then painted it gray. When that was dry I soak it in washes of india ink and dark brown paint. This brought out the texture really well. After installation use weathering powders for moss and rust.
The more colours you can use in washes the better it looks. I used a whole lot of colours on these foam mountains.
