Please note that I made no attempt to follow any prototype on any of the bridges. If it roughly resembles a bridge, that's close eough. I tried making things prototypical on the N scale layout. I got so caught up in the "realism" I couldn't make a whole lot of progress. Trackage and some minimal scernery was as far as I got.
The fun quotient went south. I had this mammoth project in my garage but I really wasn't satisfied with the results.
Anyway...
I built a set of truss bridges for Quotidian. There are three of them connecting the viaduct sections and carrying the branch over the Main, passing siding and yard throat (if you can call it that)...
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| Quotidian Bridges |
The third truss bridge will be installed behind the camera location.
The truss bridges being straight I cut the viaduct into sections after realizing they need to be curved. Each arch is a section on both parts of the viaduct. Luckily the styrofoam spline makes it easy to make changes. The track on both ends of the viaduct will require new alignments. The curve radius will undoubtedly shrink. Fortunately the equipment that will operate on the branch can handle tight curves..
Meanwhile at the opposite side of the layout all the track loops cross the Split River. Where the branch approaches the mine I decided to at a trestle and truss. If the truss looks familiar it's because it's the Web truss, the first bridge I built. Rather than use it at Quotidian, I turned it upside down and combined it with trestle bents.
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| Split River "Canyon" |
The trestle bents are all the same size. The canyon has vertical walls. To the left the tracks will emerge from a tunnel. To the right they'll pass through a deep cut to the mine. I'm not really sure yet what bridges will carry the other tracks. The Erie girder will be used on the other side of the layout.
I mentioned above that the equipment operating on the branch can handle tight curves. A typical andyrobertsite train looks something like this...
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| Short Equipment on Tight Curves |
Since I first saw the Gorre & Dephetid I have wanted a train of these short ore cars. Same with those little disconnected log trucks. The ore cars were easy to find at prices to suit the budget. Those log cars, however, cost a bit more than I wanna pay. I have a similar truck from a industrial / logging caboose. Maybe I can scratch up a set by copying that.
As for scratch building, I'm taking a shot at a shell for the Travis drive Hustler. It needs some sanding, a riveted wrapper and a few other things, but I got the basic shape...
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| Travis Drive Boxcab |
I had to laugh at myself. I built the ends with the shell sitting on the frame. I patiently cut out coupler pockets based on the Kadee coupler at the rear of the engine. I did not, however, pay attention to the fact that I was painting myself into a corner. The shell cannot be taken off without removing the couplers. Nor can the couplers be removed until the shell is out of the way.
Oooops
In case the homebuilt boxcab doesn't work out, I'm looking for an old Cary Hustler shell. It was cast from white metal and designed to fit the wee beastie...
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| Cary Boxcab Shell |
Some serendipity to compensate for painting myself into that corner came from EBay. I had shown you the Revell enginehouse I snagged cheap. I also came across two more affordable Revell buildings...
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| Revell Buildings |
A sandhouse and a yard office as a set. Couldn't resist. I love theses old Revell kits. The buildings have resurfaced under a series of manufacturers, some in Europe, some here in the US. I stick with the Revell.
They say that most, if not all model railroaders are trying to recapture memories from their youth. I've come to realize I'm the same way. I building this layout based on the model railroading I saw as a kid. The penchant for Revell building kits, the obsession with old MR and RMC magazines (pre 1970 or so) and several other aspects of my hobby all come from being nine years old. My first exposure to model railroading (that I can remember) was a huge pile of Model Railroader magazines my brother-in-law had. I would sit with halh the pile in my lap and spend a few hours paging though. I would alternate pile halves and bring them home. The bug really bit when I came across an image of Robison Cliff on John Allen's Gorre & Dephetid. Way back then I tried scratchbuilding trying to copy things I saw in those magazines.
Like many model railroaders I took a hiatus from the hobby to study girls, cars and more of either. There were some minor skirmishes throughout the years, but it wasn't until I got somewhere on the younger side of sixty that the hobby caught up with me. I learned about "digital" model railroading with Microsoft Train Simulator. I tried operations, but found I had more fun building virtual models for the simulator...
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| Virtual New Haven ALCo's |
Sometime in there I underwent a quadruple bypass. Upon recovery I toyed with building S scale models as therapy. Soon a portion of the garage was taken over and an N scale layout began taking shape until it enventually took up most of the garage...
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| Allegheny Eastern Slope, Pennsylvania Railroad |
So that's how I ended up here. Sorry about the history tour.
Regards,
Frank Musick
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