I just received my Proto1000 subway car set today. I am eager to start building the elevated train portion of my layout. I have some problems I must figure out before i start. I have roughly 120+" to cover for the main run of the train.
My goal is to have the thing look like the elevated trains that run in Chicago and NY. I have been researching the City Viaduct that is made by Micro Engineering. I have seen in other posts that it is a nice kit but can be a bear to assemble. I would need about 6 of the 150’ (scale feet) kits to cover my 120" real area. I would rather not spend close to $400 for the bridges.
I found another bridge kit from Faller called the “steel bridge” I don’t think this one looks as good as the one from ME. I have been trying to research this bridge but have not had much luck.
I am wondering if anyone has ideas on how to minimize the number of kits i would need, or how to scratch build a similar structure, or any other alternative.
If necessary I could spend the money, it would just take a long time to complete, buying one here and there.
The more recent elevated structures in Da Bronx were simply a succession of plate girder spans, each supporting one track and supported in turn by steel structures with H-column legs and a cross-span girder the same depth as the under-the-rail girders. The interest and complexity was above the girders - the bridge ties, the guardrails, the tie-end timbers, the walkways between tracks and outside the tracks supported on occasional bridge ties, the little wedges placed atop the regular ties for superelevation on curves… The girders themselves could be modeled using a plain deck girder bridge, with the inner girders made from equal-size pieces of plain thick styrene. Since they would be hidden in the gloom under all that woodwork, the absence of stiffening angles would be almost impossible to notice.
I used to ride the Pelham Bay Park line to and from school and remember when the old monitor-roof cars were replaced by the cars you have.
If you enter Westchester Square, Bronx, NY in your favorite satellite-view program you will get a nice overview of a complex mid-air junction (just northeast, between Westchester Square and Middletown Road) and the storage yard and shop complex it connects to.
Sure, for the Queens bridge in your second post - buy one kit. Make a latex mold and cast as many as you want out of casting plaster or envirotex. There are other mold and casting materials available too but these are the ones that I am familiar with.
