Need some help from the resident SPFs on bridges

[Ed Kapuscinski]

[I'm looking at you Gregg & Jerry  ]

I'm looking for something to make a PRR style bridge to bridge a small (~ 40' total gap) creek.

I'm thinking about maybe using one of the Atlas viaduct sections.

Here's the tough part though, it's on a curve.

Here's the idea (that dark brown area is the creek/pond):

[Chris333]

I used 2 of the Atlas arches here:


In the top right you can see it's on a 12" curve:


Just notched the inside half of the pier and glued it together then added strip wood "concrete" caps.

If you want better pics let me know, that layout is leaning up against the wall somewhere around here...

Some 100 year old shots here:
http://rides.webshots.com/album/63288866PnpIRl

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I think I like them.

The only thing I'm not completely happy with is the stone texture. The PRR ones seem to have a slightly more "depthy" stone to them. But unless the SPF brigade has some good recs, I think I'll go this route (and I don't think you can beat the price).

[3rdrail]

Ed, you don't say how far the track is above the water level of the creek, nor if the 40 feet is the width of the depression or the width of the water in the creek. If the creek were 20 ft or less wide and the water level about the same below the rail, PRR would have used a fill and a couple of culverts...made of cut stone, of course.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Sorry about that Gregg, I meant it's about 40' total depression.

The track will already be on a bit of a fill for the whole area. I guess what I'm talking about is using a large culvert, like one of the Atlas bridge sections (I think I'd just use one arch).

[Chris333]

If you don't like the stonework of the Atlas bridge you could use stone tunnel portals.

[Mark5]

some pretty cool culverts here (if that's your cup'o tea):

http://www.modelrailstuff.com/bridgeparts.htm

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I was thinking of these too:

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/product_p/214-9750.htm

[keystonecrossings]

I can't think of anything better for such a short gap.

[Sokramiketes]

Here's the idea (that dark brown area is the creek/pond):

Isn't your layout too young to need hair plugs? 

[John]

those trees do need some work  ;D

[sirenwerks]

Dude, get the weedwhacker out already...I told you not to use natural scenicking products, they never remove all the seeds.

Me thinks you should follow the lead of one TrainCat guy, and build a beaut of your own - http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=33797. Come down to my neck of the woods and check out a real stoner bridge - Latrobe's Folly (commonly referred to as the Thomas Viaduct) - and then go home and scratch your own. Give me a call and we'll meet up somewhere. What else is there to do now that Klein's is (temporarily) shuttered?  :'(

[DKS]

Ed, about eight or ten years ago I created a stone arch bridge that has lots of character using old Chooch tunnel portals and retaining walls (just as was suggested above). I heated the castings in boiling water to curve them, and after sanding all of the joints flat, bonded the parts together with CA. The bridge I modeled was abandoned, which explains its condition. The layout is gone, but I saved the bridge:

[Ed Kapuscinski]

David
That looks like the ticket!

I think I'm gonna go with the chooch approach.

Can someone give me a good measurement of one of the double track tunnel portals?

I need the total width from one side of the casing to the other (basically, the length of the bridge).

Bryan: I know ALL about that viaduct. I was just there yesterday evening, actually, but it's a little grandiose for what I need.

[DKS]

Ed, I don't have one of the newer Chooch double-track portal castings to measure, but the older ones are 45 feet long overall, FWIW.