Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge

[TMo]

Thanks Tom.  With so much going on here (an interstate highway, an active railway crossing over an inactive one, a river and a railroad bridge with massive abutments), this was always going to be a feature that draws interest.  I wanted to make sure I had a good handle on background and foreground scenery before attacking this one.  So, it's time.

Took the bridge and the free-standing abutments out this evening.  Won't be running trains through here for a while!

   

I also spent some time making sure of the abutment locations.  Before I removed the bridges and after pulling the abutments out I dropped a small plumb bob from the support pins under the ends of the bridge sections and got good centering, spacing and alignment for each free-standing abutment.  Marked those locations on the Sculptamold and made adjustments with a hobby knife to clear the Sculptamold and plaster cloth off of the plywood base.  

   

I'm going to add a bit more Sculptamold to areas around the base of the abutments and want to keep the Realistic Water from seeping under the areas for each abutment, so I made two surrogate bases out of Styrofoam board and screwed them into the plywood base from underneath.  Once the Realistic Water finishes curing, I'll remove the surrogate bases to give me a little more room to work.

   

Painting starts tomorrow!