GEC's Layout Progress

[Green_Elite_Cab]

See? It will NEVER get done!

Its fun to dream though...

Ahaha! Watching picture back from 2007, I'm still running trains on fiber board in terms of scenery!! We move forward, then move back... always, always... learning as we process our ambitious and contradictory dreams!

Joke aside, your bridge, that seems to represent something built in the 60's should be rebuild with larger piles and higher structural beem. Seems like you used the Rix overpass kit that is nice for small and frail structures built around 1930's.

I would keep the bridge for visual separation. Your layout is small in a shape you can feel you don't travel from a borough to another. In this respect, keeping the bridge feels like a good idea. If build strong enough, it could be made in two supporting section you can lift if you need to take some pictures.

Look at real large highways, you'll be surprised how they can span large areas, especially over rails... Good old Google Earth is a cheap way to check that. You could build something real nice from 1/2" and 1/4" MDF board scraps you can get at a local hardware store for a few bucks. Paint them with cheap Krylon paint (I suggest their light beige grey that looks light real concrete) and, if you feel a little bit artistic, wash them with a good old 50-50 diluted black formula. Details can be added later on. I used sprues with wire to make drains. Looking at your beautiful handmade catenary, I'm sure it's not beyond your reach at all.................

....................The span is about 140 ft, so 19 inches in HO!!! More than you need my friend! Just make sure the girder doesn't look too frail. Rix overpass then to look like a pancake over long distance...

Hope this help!

It does, but then the Northeast is notorious for small short bridges. There is a highway bridge over the Northeast Corridor that might work, but I'll still have to find a prototypical design to copy. I was thinking about trying to repersent the approaches to the Outerbridge Crossing (the original inspiration for the layout was the Perth Amboy area, where the Outerbridge crosses over the former PRR/CNJ New York & Long Branch, now the NJ Transit North Jersey Coastline). The Outerbridge is an older 1930s bridge, but it is built thicker. Unfortuneately, I suspect that the distance between spans on the approach is not much larger than the distance on the rix kits, even though the Outerbridge would be more substantial.

It also might be a more involved project-

Excellent work on your catenary. My prototype was an electric traction too, but I only represented both end of the line that were steam and diesel... However, I'd like to depict a few catenary at one station to show the true nature of the road...

BTW, I love your electric roster. It reminds me I have a very old athearn Virginian electric locomotive very similar to yours. These engines have lots of character!

Matt

If its Virginian, it probably is meant to be the same. I know that Lionel made an HO version of the E33 in a shortened form. I have two E33s (known on the Virginian as "EL-C").

I love the electric locomotives. Its not a very common prototype. There are a few modelers of American electric operations, but I like to think I have a pretty nice roster for the time period I've Chosen. I'm thinking the best Electrified layouts are Andy Rubbo's Northeast Corridor, Rick Abramhson's New Haven, and Bill Kachel's PRR set up. Each is pretty large and very well done with a good electric roster.

If I ever do get a larger electric layout built, I'm pretty confident in claiming I'm probably one of the only people doing the Northeast Corridor in the late 70s.