Daryl,
One thought as you go forward would be to match your modeled scenes with the prototype scenes you're working with. You did that to great effect on the Rochelle Sub layout. How about a shot of that bridge out in the wild?
Lee
Ok, here's the deal. On the prototype the UP mainline does not cross the Rock River until its gets just west of Nelson, IL where it crosses with a five span bridge. Wrong spot for the layout and way too big. On the other hand, there is a creek crossing just west of Franklin Grove shown in the sat. picture below.
So, I am fudging things just a bit, moving the Rock River to Franklin Grove, making it smaller but still bigger than a creek and crossing it with readily available kits. Below is a prototype photo that I am patterning the bridges after. IIRC its in Kentucky somewhere on the CSX.
The layout will also include the Mississippi River crossing at Clinton. In this case the scene will be modelled as faithfully as possible with scratch built bridges, etc. Below is the protype for the crossing and the location of the bridges on the layout.
