02-19-2023, 01:49 PM
Many thanks! I know it's not the first time I've said in this forum that sharing my progress with you fine people is really rewarding, and I hope I've provided some new techniques or encouragement to take one of your own projects to completion.
No rest for the weary, however! We move about 14 (non-scale) feet to the east. I know I've posted some photos of this area in "Side Shot Saturdays" or "Photos of the Week", and each time I see a photo I see how nice this area could be if I finished the scenery!
There are two railroad bridges between Jim Thorpe and White Haven, PA on the former LV mainline. While the CNJ travelled strictly on the west side of the Lehigh River in the gorge, the LV started on the west side, switched over to the east side at Penn Haven Junction, and then crossed again just south of the town of White Haven and then crossed over the CNJ and paralelled the CNJ toward Wilkes Barre. There's a contemporary shot on the west side of the Lehigh here: https://www.railpictures.net/images/d2/8...524858.jpg.
I never had enough room to duplicate the straight section of the river here, as my storage level is in the way. So, my river bends sharply just past the bridge. The real bridge is a double track (2 sets of deck girder bridges), but since the double track was reduced to a single they only use half of it. So, mine is a single deck girder bridge with two abutments rising from the riverbed and two abutments built into the river bank.
Here's the current scenic state.
On the far right you see the ends of my I-80 bridges (intent on leaving those as is), the crossing of the CNJ (in 1976 the tracks had already been pulled up here) and then the deck girder bridge that's probably about 60 feet to the surface of the river. If I've had extra paint from the Mud Run project, I've been getting rid of it on the foreground rocks and the riverbed (which still needs copious amounts of Realistic Water to be applied. There's a bunch of dark brown, painted surfaces that desperately need attention, most of which are behind the bridge.
The fun begins behind the bridge. Rather than squeeze myself in between the bridge abutments, I'm going to take down the bridge until the scenery is done. That means I won't be running any trains on the viewing level after the dismantling, which means I may have extra incentive to get this project completed, or it may mean installing a temporary bridge I can run on in the interim without abutments.
So, just like Mud Run, the first order of business after dismantling will be getting the riverbed fully painted and prepped. Once the riverbed is poured, I'll be working from the back to the front in stages (painting, layering with ground covers, applying shrubs and underbrush, and then finally trees). I'll once again be providing progress reports as things progress.
No rest for the weary, however! We move about 14 (non-scale) feet to the east. I know I've posted some photos of this area in "Side Shot Saturdays" or "Photos of the Week", and each time I see a photo I see how nice this area could be if I finished the scenery!
There are two railroad bridges between Jim Thorpe and White Haven, PA on the former LV mainline. While the CNJ travelled strictly on the west side of the Lehigh River in the gorge, the LV started on the west side, switched over to the east side at Penn Haven Junction, and then crossed again just south of the town of White Haven and then crossed over the CNJ and paralelled the CNJ toward Wilkes Barre. There's a contemporary shot on the west side of the Lehigh here: https://www.railpictures.net/images/d2/8...524858.jpg.
I never had enough room to duplicate the straight section of the river here, as my storage level is in the way. So, my river bends sharply just past the bridge. The real bridge is a double track (2 sets of deck girder bridges), but since the double track was reduced to a single they only use half of it. So, mine is a single deck girder bridge with two abutments rising from the riverbed and two abutments built into the river bank.
Here's the current scenic state.
On the far right you see the ends of my I-80 bridges (intent on leaving those as is), the crossing of the CNJ (in 1976 the tracks had already been pulled up here) and then the deck girder bridge that's probably about 60 feet to the surface of the river. If I've had extra paint from the Mud Run project, I've been getting rid of it on the foreground rocks and the riverbed (which still needs copious amounts of Realistic Water to be applied. There's a bunch of dark brown, painted surfaces that desperately need attention, most of which are behind the bridge.
The fun begins behind the bridge. Rather than squeeze myself in between the bridge abutments, I'm going to take down the bridge until the scenery is done. That means I won't be running any trains on the viewing level after the dismantling, which means I may have extra incentive to get this project completed, or it may mean installing a temporary bridge I can run on in the interim without abutments.
So, just like Mud Run, the first order of business after dismantling will be getting the riverbed fully painted and prepped. Once the riverbed is poured, I'll be working from the back to the front in stages (painting, layering with ground covers, applying shrubs and underbrush, and then finally trees). I'll once again be providing progress reports as things progress.
Check out my "Rainbows in the Gorge" website: http://morristhemoosetm.wixsite.com/rainbows