Model Railroading > Rio Grande bridge

I put the finishing touches on my N scale version of this bridge on the Moffat Line, just below East Portal. The bridge and abutments are scratch built from styrene with the railings made from brass shapes and phosphor bronze wire. Track is code 55 Micro Engineering. 

Rick Bacon
Windsor, CO

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Very well done.
In particular you have captured the dark slag ballast on the DRGW, plus the excellent summer grass, code 55 track, and of course the bridge itself.
This scene should be the envy of a lot of HO scale layouts, it is perhaps the best I have seen in N scale.

Wow thats good

Dave

WOW!!! Nice work!!

Fantastic modeling, looks great!

excellent work - it's results like this that raises the bar as a challenge improving the hobby

Very nice.  What are you using for ballast?

Cheers,
Jim

not only the bridge is excellant - the culvert has my vote !
 

Whose ballast did you use? Thanks in advance!

What RTB said. A train would actually degrade this excellent scene.

I'm glad the real road isn't that rocky!!

And you need a railfan on the hill to the left!  I have shot from that hill!  Also the hilll of your view point.

Greeat modeling though.  It's an instand recognition of the spot.

RR

some modelers in colorado , go up to the tenn pass line and get some real ballast

put washboard on the road!!  it is pretty smooth lately...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/24 10:14 by dan.

Hey guys, thanks for all the comments!

The ballast is Woodland Scenics fine cinder ballast.  I use diluted isopropyl alcohol to wet the ballast before gluing.  This seems to keep the light weight ballast material from floating!  The scenic base starts with sifted dirt from a deep excavation near my house in Northern Colorado.  I like this dirt because it has almost zero organic material and is very fine, nearly a dust.  For the larger rock out croppings, I use decomposed granite I collected near Bailey, Colorado.  I sift and sort it by size and layer it on top of the base soil going from most course to finest to create a natural buried look.  Diluted Elmers glue is my go to adhesive for scenery.  After all the glue is dry, I use a mix of dry-brushed acrylic and craft paints to re-color the granite to color blend it with the Mountains in Minutes foam castings I use for the rock cuts.  Grass starts with a base of Woodland Scenics golden flock with a little medium green mixed in.  I apply this base with a large kitchen sieve over thinned Elmers glue.  A static grass machine is used to add more of the same flock material to represent standing grasses.  6mm Heki brand static grass is applied with the static machine to replicate the taller grass patches.  Silfor grass tufts are used for the dead grass patches.  Lots of layers and blending colors seem to be the secret!  The culvert is just a piece of corrugated roofing rolled around a one inch dowel.  The inch dowel is very close to the prototype pipe's 156 inch diameter. 


 

Rick Bacon
Windsor, CO