CN Yellowhead Division

[Scottl]

Thanks guys.  @Missaberoad that is high praise, Tim's photos are my primary inspiration.

I've been building bridges for the past week in anticipation of finishing the Snake Indian River scene.  It is cool because there is both an original pair of through truss bridges, as well as a pair of through plate girder bridges that were added during the double tracking phase (1980s?).  The track is spaced more widely here for the two bridges.

The site is impossible to get to so I am going on very limited photographic evidence.  From Google, I know the span is about 200' total, so each bridge should be made up of a pair of ~100' spans.  I'll need to widen the river to make this scene work.

For the through truss, I kitbashed a pair of Central Valley kits to make two smaller bridges.  They are a good replica of the prototype.

The newer through plate girder bridges are a bit of a mystery.  I only have poor snatches of view from a few videos and photos.  They appear to be a more modern type than the existing models out there and have a rust finish, typical of the new bridges that they are installing.  I can tell in one photo that the deck is ballasted.  So other than that, I have put these two bridges together out of strip styrene, the remnants of my Cisco bridge building days over a decade ago.  I'm pretty happy with these and the paint shop is next for all of the bridges.

But I have a big question that I am hoping for some help.  What should I do about the pier(s) that hold these spans up, especially the middle span?  Bridges of both ages have concrete for footings at the ends and it looks like the concrete of both bridges was combined into a single abutment.  But I have no clue what to do for the middle pier.  Any ideas?  It will be largely hidden by vegetation but I want something that is at least realistic.  Also, does it make sense to combine the middle pier for both bridges or use separate piers?  Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[NorthWestGN]

Hi Scott,

I found the bridges on google earth but very little info from the site, even using the 3D selection, could they have poured a concrete pier, one for each span? Not sure how old the original truss span is, perhaps a cemented cut stone pier for the truss span and poured concrete for the plate girder bridge? Do you know anyone in the Engineering Department? Who knows, a phone call may answer your question...

Brent

[Scottl]

Thanks Brent, I think the truss bridge is from the c. 1918 era when the line was built.  A similar bridge about 20 km away has old concrete abutments so I think I can get away with that.  The pier could easily be poured concrete as well but I am purely guessing.

I did have a connection with engineering but he seems to be unavailable.  I might just have to fudge it and put simple poured piers for both, with weathering appropriate to the different ages.  It will be mostly hidden by vegetation but I would like to have something at least realistic, if not prototypical.

[Scottl]

I modified the river space to fit the new bridges.  You can see how much I had to widen it by the exposure of the gray foam compared to the pink.  Not too bad and I think the scene is interesting because of the unusual bridges.



I painted the bridges with acrylics and then weathered them with Mig Ammo enamel paints.   I loved working with these enamels and the thinner.
 It is much faster than water-based oil paints and you have a lot of control/forgiveness in the process.  I have the sets that include a total of 6 rust and fading colors of the oil painters.  It is like a nail polish despenser- so nice and easy to work with and no clean up. 

I'm still not sure the plate girder bridge is weathered enough so I'll leave it for a week to go hiking and see what I think when I get back.



I have also been sieving my various 'river' gravel materials to do this scene.  I have a few bags of my mix from the Arctic that I collected 25 years ago that is devoid of quartz so it makes for perfect scale gravel without the shiny grains.  I also have a big bag of material from another location in the Rockies that has great subangular sand grains that should be useful as well.  I have not done a true gravel river before so looking forward to getting the look correct.  I need to collect a bunch of woody debris but finding n-scale wood is tough.

[craigolio1]

Ok now we are talking. You know I have thing for river crossings.

Craig.

[NorthWestGN]

Your bridges look great Scott, I like the effects you got with the Mig Ammo enamels. I'll see what I can find at the local "Armour" hobby shop...

By the way that cut grey foam looks a lot like a an eroded clay bank in the photos... I'll have to look to see if I can find grey foam insulation locally rather the pink, looks like it would be a lot easier to make it look like grey rock...

Brent

[Scottl]

Thanks Guys!

@NorthWestGN, the gray foam sheets are great for layouts.  Nice for a good default color but also come in thicknesses up to 4".  I have never seen it sold anywhere but received it from a friend in construction.  They apparently use as a base before pouring commercial sidewalks. 

I spent the week hiking and looking for suitable driftwood and logs for N scale.  I've been using the thick stem pieces from Super Trees material and but the color and shape is lacking.  It is decent for birch/poplar logs if you paint it white but otherwise not great.  While hiking I stumbled upon a suitable source in the form of a slow-growing alpine plant that has periodic die-offs and yields perfect tiny scale logs.  The look is weathered as the stems of this plant grow so slowly that they take on many of the characteristics of larger trees, but all in a size much more suitable for N scale.  I collected a bag and dried it in the oven to kill off any hitchhiking bugs.  Not all the pieces are small enough, but the gray-brown look and weathering ideal to my eye.  I'll use these in rivers and for fallen trees and snags in the forest.  Bad news is you have to hike to the alpine to get it.



I also received my Scenic Express order of rock ballast and some additional foam/leaf flake.  Anyone on TRW that complains about shipping costs needs to get rock ballast to Canada, lol.  However, it was worth it as I FINALLY found a suitable color for conifer tree flocking:  Burnt Green.  The Scenic Express version is much more green than Woodland Scenics and is what I have been acheiving by top coating trees with spray paint (Tamiya Olive Drab 2).  This eliminates one step/input in my tree construction and looks great! 

The limestone ballast is a first for me, I have always used the Woodlands Scenic fine shell material.  The rock material is much finer (#50 grade) and does not float as easily, so consider me a convert.  There is some shine in there so I'm not 100% convinced it is all limestone, but I quibble.

I've been using all of these materials and homemade trees to build up a convincing springtime forest in order to get the methods down.  This scene is not there yet, but getting close to the mix of trees and understory.  The birch and poplar trees have that vibrant light green foliage in spring that really contrasts with the darker spruce and pine.  I'll be adding some grass and more shrubs into this as well. 

[Scottl]

Not much progress other than ballasting the yard, making trees and bushes, and finishing the Snake Indian River scene.  The river is in the initial stages, but the former floodplain under the first bridge spans is mostly done now.  Picture to check for clearance with the bridge.



I can see that it will take most of the winter to make enough trees and bushes to finish the section with backdrop.  It is painfully time consuming, but I think it is worth the effort.  Once the ballasting in the yard is done, I'll bring out the trains for operating over the winter.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

It's worth the time. It looks amazing.

[Tad_T]

You do really nice work.

[Scottl]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it!  Tree and bush making is good winter work. 

I've nearly finished the Snake Indian River scene and am ready to re-lay the track on the bridges.  It is a frustratingly shallow scene for photography but I'm happy with how it came together.  Trees will mask the river disappearing into the backdrop and make it much tighter looking than it does here.  I also need to add driftwood to detail out the river a bit, and probably some more bush on the former floodplain.

[NorthWestGN]

That looks great Scott! Now for track and trains!

[Scottl]

Thanks Brent!  First track is in and waiting on some railing material for the through truss bridge before installing that track. 

Back to tree making and ballasting!

[Scottl]

The track is in, just need to ballast the south track and add trees and bushes.  I'm pretty happy with how this turned out but regretting not having more foreground scenery for photos.

I'll need to get some focus stacking software to make some of these shots sharp!

Time to make get that ballasting in the yard done so I can run trains.  I might just seal up what I have down and leave the rest for next year.

[Scottl]

Prepared hundreds of spruce and birch trees, along with saplings and small bushes.  The Snake Indian River scene is pretty much done now and I'll be getting the trains out to run for the first time in 6 months and continue to finish the vegetation for the rest of the layout with backdrop- about 4' more.