I'm sitting here at my desk multi tasking I think they call it building a Central Valley single track 72' Plate Girder Bridge as well as looking at pictures of bridges on the net and posting here of course. So I've built several of these bridges two double track versions as well as one other single track one just like this one and of course they are all painted black. Then weathered with grimy black chalk rust what ever. So I'm thinking you know I'm getting board with black even though it may be the general color of choice for bridges. So I was wondering what alternate colors have you guys painted your bridges.
Where I grew up, truss bridges were mostly silver with an occasional one in a light sage green, so I've tried to stick to that with my bridges. The last one I did, I did in black and it's been a disappointment to look at for me, I was trying to stay with the prototype and that was when rivet counting shoulda took a back seat to memories...
The few plate girder bridges here in Houston are silver.
I would start with the question of are you trying to model a prototype or freelanced bridge. If it's freelanced the Sky's the limit
. If it's a prototype or even Proto freelanced try to find some color pics or make a field trip to the location
.
Where I grew up in Bayonne NJ. there were plenty of railroad bridges in all sizes, they were all black, weathered to various degrees it tones of browns, grimy blacks, and rusty colors.
Modern bridges I have seen the trusses or girders painted many colors - even yellow. Older bridges, especially railroad bridges, seems all I can remember seeing is silver or black. I could see oxide red as a possibility, but I think silver may help inspectors see rust or other damage.
There are still some of the C&NW bridges painted C&NW green. My high level dual gauge steel arch bridges (old modules) are dark gray, the rest start with Grimy Black, and get weathered mostly with rust. If memory serves me, the LIRR bridge across the Shinnecock Canal was silver, the similar road bridge (RT 27/ now RT27a), just to the south, was black.
Allegheny2-6-6-6 Wrote:I'm sitting here at my desk multi tasking I think they call it building a Central Valley single track 72' Plate Girder Bridge as well as looking at pictures of bridges on the net and posting here of course. So I've built several of these bridges two double track versions as well as one other single track one just like this one and of course they are all painted black. Then weathered with grimy black chalk rust what ever. So I'm thinking you know I'm getting board with black even though it may be the general color of choice for bridges. So I was wondering what alternate colors have you guys painted your bridges.
Are you modeling a specific prototype railroad? I think each railroad had a specific paint spec for steel bridges. Out here in So Cal we had three major railroads, now two since the U.P. take over of S.P. If I remember correctly, Santa Fe used a silver color for their bridges and S.P. used black. I don't what U.P. used. If you are modeling a prototype railroad, paint your bridges like the prototype did. Even if you are freelancing the scenes and bridges, having the bridges painted the same color as your prototype will identify your bridges with your prototype for any visitors who are knowledgeable about the prototype and will give you more of a feel of being a real railroad. Also many railroads put the company logo on the side of all plate girder bridges, or at least one of the plate girder bridges when there was a series of them crossing a canyon or river.