SP’s Willamette river crossing at the tail of Lookout Point Reservoir was via three through truss sections (basically) in the middle of three plate girder sections.
Ron Harr image:
Space on the layout here only permitted half that, with one thru truss and a plate girder on each side of that. It was hard for me to follow through on construction due to the model being so condensed, but I continued to persevere through with an attempt to Espee-ize the more prominent components.
For construction, minor modifications to the Atlas (early style) plate girder bridges entailed raising the roadbed, and adding gussets on the inside of the plate girders. I modified the Atlas (late version) thru truss bridge from an open deck to a ballasted deck, and added handrailing on both sides.
I also reworked the shape of the portal openings, which regained lost clearance from the ballasted deck conversion. Other mods included adding plates where the bridge sections are connected together, and Micro Engineering cast metal bridge feet.
This bridge is part of the overall scene that includes the west end of Hampton siding, an important addition to operations of the layout. The opening behind the bridge is to help crews view train clearances and signal indications from opposing sides. Eventually a tree line will mostly obscure the opening in an effort to keep the scene fluid.
I still need to modify the styrene bridge piers that Art built to accept the offset foot patterns, and paint the overall structure, then ballast will go in after the ground cover.
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