Ok, I was bored, so i was looking for some ideas for bridges you see. well to make a long boring story a short boring story, I found this interesting site http://www.structurae.net/en/structures/index.php
Well being the bored person i was, I started to look at some of the bridges they had in their database and started to wonder. now what was i wondering about, well how big would a bridge that crossed the missippi near Moline Illinois be in HO scale.
well let’s see 1 bridge crossing it was stated as being 600m (or 1968.5 ft), Which if i did my calculations right would mean i would need an area of 22.6 ft to simulate a c\rossing of the mighty missippi at a medium witdh.
Now to contrast that, the Madison Street Bridgein chicago is only 59.7 m (195.7 ft), And in scale it would be 2.25 ft across.
Hmm…so even a moderate river is hard to model, no wonder we all model streams and creeks [:D]
Jay,
Lots of stuff we model is at ridiculously small size. A typical tree in a typical back yard is about 50 feet tall. Most trees on layouts are about 10-12 feet tall. About the size you’d buy at a nursery for planting.
Yeah, I get bored, too! [:D]
Eric
Yes Eric, but seems people are so parinoid that they have to get the train and the tracks in perfect scale and forget that the rest of thier little world is so badly out of scale. Remember the next time to see a rivit counter, ask them in their trees, rivers, and mountains are in perfect scale as well [:p]
My crossing of the Mississippi doesn’t even have a bridge. It has the approach and one plate girder span, then the tracks that cross the sliding glass door to the basement, then the approach on the other side. You really don’t need the middle.
The two bridges I’m going to model are both 2800+ feet long…OVER 140 inches long(13’8"in HO scale), But I’m using my Modeller’s License to “selectively compress” them to around 48", long enough to get the jist… but not so long that I need to build an addition to the house!! THAT’S what model RRing is about, fitting what you want into the space you have!!