Plate Girder Bridge (US theme) HO scale

[Y_Rail]

Hi all,

 

I hope that i am posting this in the correct sub-forum. If not apologies in advance.

 

I have almost finished a steel trestle bridge for my layout. It is a 3 part plate girder bridge (2 x 50' spans and 1x30' center span. something like 20" actual length). The steel tower hasn't been added yet but the bridge is already on the layout serving it's purpose.

 

It is based on ATSF prototypes (loosely based one could argue), and the era is mid sixties in Southern California.

 

For the construction the interior structural (unseen) part of the bridge is made using 2mm styrene plates, sandwiched between the plates are square beams and brass pipes so that heavy consists of locomotives can easily traverse the bridge without any flexing (and without the structural need of a tower in the middle span). The entire interior structure is then "plated" with Wills vari-girder plates. The "wooden" deck of the bridge is again 2mm styrene with inserts of Vollmer wood-plank styrene sheets and styrene square beams for the pillars and braces of the railing. The railing itself is made out of evergreen channels. The said channels did warp nicely and gave an appearance resembling the actual warped wooden railings of the prototypes. All the plain styrene elements were treated with a wire-brush in order to represent a faux-wooden surface. Painting was done with airbrushed and brushed acrylics. Weathering was done using with various enamel / oil based colors including some MIG weathering enamels and acrylic rust colors.

 

I also include a picture of two extra plates that have been made for a 2nd bridge project which were also made using Wills vari-girders.

 

Many thanks for stopping by and checking my work out and i hope that you like it.

 

Yannis

 

[HeatonLodge40]

Like it - what did you use to weather the girders?

[Y_Rail]

Thanks for the kind comment. I used MIG's weathering enamels (various tones, such as rainmarks, dust effects etc...), some acrylic rust colors for rust chipping etc, and enamel rust washes for streaking rust effects. Some dust effects were airbrushed and brushed in various layers. I hope this helps.