The Little Rock Line

[Cajonpassfan]

Looking good! Keep 'em coming...
Otto K.

[GaryHinshaw]

Things are shaping up nicely Allen!  Great idea to use MDF for the piers.  I may have to try that with some tunnel portals...

-gfh

[Bendtracker1]

Thanks @Chris333, @C855B, @Cajonpassfan and @GaryHinshaw !

Gary the MDF turned out to be a lot easier to use than first imagined.  I was afraid it would be too hard and the chipping and cracks wouldn't turnout as well as they did.  This MDF was the standard grade, if you could find some of the lightweight MDF, better know as TruPan it would be even easier to work with.  The way it was though, a good sharp #11 blade worked it very easily.

Moving right along.....
Thanks to the long weekends and short work weeks due to this holiday season, I pushed myself to get the scene this far along. Not sure how much more I'll get done to this area? Planning to have an ops session the middle of Feb so I don't want it to be torn up for that.

After getting a location laid out for the Truss bridge I started removing the remaining ceiling tile and foam for the river area. I had to re-align the drill track slightly to line up with the bridge.

One thing I didn't put much thought into was the differences in the length of the two bridges and the close proximity to each other. This kind of messed with the shape of the river as I had envisioned it to be a fairly evenly wide body of water running through the scene. I gave thought of adding a 40' deck bridge to the Truss bridge but since I already had the guardrails installed and bent I didn't want to mess that up.

This would have given a more even width of the river, but a little head scratching told me to keep the river not much wider than the Truss bridge and when it passes under the Deck bridge to keep it under the middle and right 80' span. The area under the leftmost span will be more of a raised sandy area, but still mostly covered in trees. So I think it should still work just fine?







A short while later I heard the distant rumble of something heading south. Within a few minutes GP7 #4434 was leading the SB LRMP-W over the Deck bridge. While I was getting the shot setup, I noticed another GP in the background, the El Dorado Switcher (an ex-drgw GP7) was dragging what must be a very long cut of cars onto the Truss bridge while working the yard in El Dorado!



As always, a bit more on the blog...

[Chris333]

So is this the area between ElDorado and Calion on your trackplan?

[Bendtracker1]

Yup!

[soo]

Looks great!

Very nice job...I love the sand bar idea.

Nice work on weathering the bridges first!!

Y-it

[wazzou]

I'm confused by the way you have the track approach the bridges on the abutments.
Is it common to have such a long abutment with what I would assume to be the rail attached directly to the concrete?

[Bendtracker1]

Looks great!

Very nice job...I love the sand bar idea.
Nice work on weathering the bridges first!!

Y-it

Thanks Y-it!

I'm confused by the way you have the track approach the bridges on the abutments.
Is it common to have such a long abutment with what I would assume to be the rail attached directly to the concrete?

You know @wazzou you're right.
I think I got the cart before the horse here. I'm kind of flying by the seat of my pants.   
The reason I made the abutments 1-1/2" thick was so I could recess them into the bank a bit more and slope the scenery back a bit.  There is also enough space under the rails to allow to slide some sleeper ties under the rails.
But I should have maybe put a lip around the top of the face and two sides of the abutments or maybe just the face?  I still might be able to do this as they are not secured into place yet, they are just sitting there at the moment.

If I cut the top down to the thickness of the cork, then come back and add a small lip, then I could lay the cork up to the lip and fill it in with earth and ballast the track?

Is this what you're thinking?
Suggestions?

[Chris333]

Think he means the missing ties let the rails rest right on the abutment.

Do you plan to slide some ties under there?

[Bendtracker1]

Do you plan to slide some ties under there?

Yes Chris, that was my original thought.
For now everything is just temp until I get some other things done.  Then I plan to go back and get things finished properly.

[wazzou]

Everything I model has a pile approach and timber abutments. 
Don't get me wrong, I think your bridges look great, but something just doesn't look right with the abutments.
I would tend to think the ROW would come nearly right to the bridge with only a couple of ties on the concrete.
I'd search for some prototype photos if there are any available.
Keep up the good work.

[Bendtracker1]

Everything I model has a pile approach and timber abutments. 
Don't get me wrong, I think your bridges look great, but something just doesn't look right with the abutments.
I would tend to think the ROW would come nearly right to the bridge with only a couple of ties on the concrete.
I'd search for some prototype photos if there are any available.
Keep up the good work.

Thank you Bryan, I appreciate the input.
It's always good to have a second set of eyes!  I guess that's one reason we post here?

I WAS planning to slip ties under the rails eventually. I'll see what that looks like first, if that doesn't fly I'll try installing a lip.

[Chris333]

Ah. Once you add the ties and fill in with ballast it won't look so odd.

What Bryan is saying is in real life the concrete wouldn't be that thick. It would be thin like:
http://monroemodels.us/9006%2072.jpg

Or if you built the wing walls like you did the walls would be thin as well. Like:


And the inside of that would be filled in with earth.

Still once you get the whole scene finished it will look more righter 

[Bendtracker1]

Ah. Once you add the ties and fill in with ballast it won't look so odd.

What Bryan is saying is in real life the concrete wouldn't be that thick. It would be thin like:
http://monroemodels.us/9006%2072.jpg

Or if you built the wing walls like you did the walls would be thin as well. Like:


And the inside of that would be filled in with earth.

Still once you get the whole scene finished it will look more righter 

Gotcha!
After thinking a bit, this would be even easier.



I'll just take it on the tablesaw and notch the top out to the thickness of the cork.  Run the cork up to the ledge and viola!  Then I could hide the overall thickness of the abutments under some earth ballast.
Thanks for the clarifications guys.

[LIRR]

Very nice work on the bridge, piers & abutments.