BN Bridge

(To understand why CGW bridge piers would be adjacent to a Rock Island mainline, or for anyone who cares about the details of the line's history:

The BNSF (lower) line was originally Milwaukee Road's Chicago-Omaha main. The IAIS (upper) line was built as part of the Rock Island's 1953 Atlantic Cutoff, a line relocation intended to do away with much of the curvature and grades of the original alignment.  RI built a short section of new mainline east out of Bluffs Yard, including this bridge over the MILW, and then joined up with the Chicago Great Western main a few hundred feet east of there at a location called Rigg.  RI then exercised trackage rights over the CGW approximately 14 miles to Peter, where the two roads parted ways and the RI continued east to Atlantic on its own new mainline. Here's a map of the Atlantic Cutoff plans:

So anyway...the bridge piers shown in the second image above were left over from the CGW's mainline.  After the CNW acquired the CGW, those portions of the line that the RI didn't use were ripped up...including that bridge.  From that time forward, the RI, then Iowa Railroad, and now IAIS each took their turns as the sole operator of what was originally a CGW line.)

Now, back to the layout scene.  Here's the "before", a shot I took in 2011 after putting down ground foam on nearly everything to dress up the foam board scenery base:

Next, work begins on the BN Bridge scene.  Homasote spline profile was reduced and aluminum stiffener added for strength.  Masonite served as the scenery base here in order to maximize the vertical separation between the two railroads.

Foam board is added to build up the scenery profile, then cut and planed to shape:

And finally, the scenery base gets a coat of ground goop, followed by Walthers bridge piers cut to fit for the old CGW main, black poly fill bushes with leaf flake foliage, static grass, and lots of Super Trees.

An overview of the scene.  I had to take some liberties with the curvature of both the IAIS and BNSF lines here - both curving the wrong way - but that was necessary in order to make this scene fit.  Hopefully it still captures the feel of the prototype.

Looking fantastic  Black

Looking fantastic

Black poly fill bushes with leaf flake foliage    How do you  do that? Just spray on adhesive and sprinkle on the SE leaf flake?

Phil

Inspirational

Hi IAIS - Joe,

Beautiful ! Your scenic 'art' inspires me. Thanks !

Filip (Building The AnneliesVille & Nav. Co. - see my blog)

Thank you

Thank you Phil and Filip for your encouragement.

Phil, you're correct.  However, after I've glued down the poly fill and let the glue dry, I pull at it in order to remove excess material, which both gives it more of a see-through look as well as creating some "branches" for the leaf flake to stick to.  Once that's done, then I spray them with hair spray and sprinkle on the leaf flake.  I'll also pinch the leaf material between my fingers and press it up against the sides of the bushes for better coverage.

Here are a couple photos of completed poly fill bushes from my earlier Indian Creek scene :

Looks great, Joe!  Excellent

Looks great, Joe!  Excellent work.

Mike.

Outstanding

Joe:

Your work is a constant inspiration to those of us still in the Plywood Pacific stage.

Jerry

Well done

What a neat overall corner scene, Joe. 

You are quickly getting to the super-detailing stage because all your main scenes are done.

Thank you

Mike, thanks very much!

Jerry, thank you.  I've been working on this layout now for almost 18 years, and with progress that slow, I'm well-acquainted with the Plywood Pacific.   It's amazing what a good feeling it is, though, to knock out some of these scenes where I'd just gotten used to the unfinished look and no longer gave it a second thought.  It's nice to finally be able to run a train through scenes that previously had relied heavily on my imagination.  I can blur my eyes a bit less now. 

Scott, I appreciate your encouragement.  I'm looking forward to that super detailing, as well as having more structures complete and rolling stock weathered.  Mostly though, I'm just looking forward to operating more frequently now that I don't have to think about any portions of the layout being out of service for bridge work!  I won't miss all the construction dust!

Congratulations

Congrats Joe, on getting even closer to a finished layout. 

Fantastic looking show!

- GS Malcolm

Steve

Thank you Steve!  But I'm running out of bare spots to put down my laptop when I'm in the layout room! 

Once I finish the last section (hopefully yet this month), my plan is to do a layout tour video and a bunch of updated photos to reflect the recent changes.  It's been a lot of fun finally getting rid of the last of the bare plywood and foam.