I’m now at the scenery planning stage of my HOn3 freelanced Colorado Rockies mining layout. All I have space to model at the moment is the scene where the railroad (at the end of a freelanced branch) emerges from a tunnel and enters the mine site. I really want to model something like this low bridge over the Animas river:
It aint the high part of the mine, it’s the shaft and which way to run it to get to the seam. Some hoist straight up then dump, others run into the hillside (Mountainside) and cart it out and some are surface mines.
It’s your railroad, if you like that scene well enough then place the mine on your line where it makes it’s closest to the mountain.
I have done lots backroads exploring in Canada. I have seen mines so far up a very vertical mountainside I wondered how they operated. I have also seen mines so close to rivers that if anyone peed in the river the mineshaft would flood. Go fourth and mine. Then send photo’s.[:)]
The type of bridge you show would be too exspensive for the mining railroad to build, remember profit was the driving force behind mining. Most of the small mines were at water level as it was easier to mine without hard rock mining . A bridge of some kind would be neat, but maybe a wood pile or wood Howe truss type. I myself like bridges and would what ever I liked and so should you . HAPPY MODELING
Well in that case go ahead and model it the way you think it would look best. With the rio grande any thing is possiable and freelanceing is the norm. Rio Grande Bob