Bridge 60 and Hyde Park Wye

The Library of Congress contains some engineering drawings of Bridge 60. You can see that there are in fact a series of bridges that make up the over 400 feet of Bridge 60. Select the image to the left to see the detail.

From the left (west), we have a Seventh Street, the Central and New Jersey line, the Lackawanna River, the Delaware & Hudson line and Bridge Street.

You can see there each of these is at a different elevation compared with what is next to it.

Here is a photo from the north (meaning, in the model, from the wall-side) in April 1967, the period that I am modeling. You can clearly see the CNJ track and the different levels. On the left, you can just make out the D&H track.

Originally, this is the area that I cut out for Bridge 60, but, when I decided to use the Kato girder bridge (see here)., from which I removed the girders, it just was not wide enough. Plus the bridge support was in the middle of the river. Not much like the prototype at all!

So, first I cut out a wider span area.

And then built a bridge extension, extra supports and varying levels.

Here, the track is also in (temporary) place.

The first layer of Modge Podge Gloss has been put in the Lackawanna River along with some rocks and assorted talus. On the right, I've cut the bank away and started to form the pedestal for the bridge that forms the wye. Additionally, Bridge Street has been lowered to the same level as the D&H which is as it is in the prototype.

A closer look. Also, I have turned the portion of the frame of the benchwork at the back of the layout into a waterfall. I've put a bit of grass down. It will look better when it's done.

All of the pieces are in place for fit. Bridge 60 needs to move about 3/4" to the right so that the bridge supports move onto land from off of the bank of the river.

The Micro-Engineering girder bridge is also in place with its bridge supports sitting on concrete footings. There is room on left and right for trains and cars to pass under it. There is a small grade here so that the track can meet the main which is about 1/2" higher that the right end of the ME bridge.

The river has 3 layers of Modge Podge and the above-the-water talus is in place, though not yet affixed.

On Bridge 60, the right bridge footing is now a concrete block scratch-built from styrene. The support on the right back has been scratch built from 1/2" styrene girder stock from Plastruct. This is similar to the prototype support. The bridge is now grimey black rather than grey.

The left bridge span of Bridge 60 is now grimey black, but the concrete bridge supports are not yet fabricated.

The road is no longer white (though it needs another coat. Seventh Street has a weather brick wall separating it from the CNJ and the start of a fence is in place.

Detail of the bridge support. Looks like I need to do some touch-up of the paint job in the middle!

Bridges are in place for testing fit only. Bridge & Seventh Street have been paved; concrete footing for the foreground bridge; ME bridge track.

One oops is I have Lehigh Valley on the CNJ track at left.

The baggage car is my new Wheels of Time limited edition DL&W version. Very nice!

For the foreground, from left to right, the changes are: upper level stone wall in place; stone wall added to Seventh Street; loose stone sidewalk added; wrought-iron fence with rust added; CNJ ROW now painted and ballasted with cinders and edged with bushes; right river bank now has shrubs & earth/dirt; D&H ROW is now painted and ballasted with cinders. Both tracks are now powered as part of the branch power district.

In the background, the Seventh Street span is complete and now resting on the new brick footing. This has been grimed up. The deck of Bridge 60 is in place and the track is ready to be affixed, painted and ballasted.

It's now completed. I will need to put some trees or bushes along the river bank, but other than that, it's done. The lines over Bridge 60 are ballasted with cinders; the razzle track (at the back), the interchange with the D&H is pained a rust color, the main lines are a grimey color and the yard lead (front) is dark brown. Some dirt and grass separates the razzle from the westbound main.

The Hyde Park Wye bridge track in the foreground is painted dark brown with a rust-colored set of guard rails.

The other track that completes the Hyde Park Wye (on the right) is ballasted with cinders. I still need to put some grass between it and the slop down to the Lackawanna River.

This shot shows the Phoebe Snow running westbound (towards the camera) and also at the "end of the line". Now that the Bridge 60 area is finished, I can extend the main westbound down the wall. This will also allow for the closing of the wye.

The CNJ (left) and the D&H (right) lines under the bridge are currently wired into the branch-line power district. I am thinking of making one of them the programming track. Not total sure, but since there is a LocoNet outlet a couple of feet away, this is a good candidate.

Here and here are large photos taken with my Canon DSLR which show the detail more.