John, the bridge looks great! It a cleaner looking installation than mine, but I can cover up most of my ‘excess’ support on the hinge side with ground cover or other scenic or structural elements. Is there any twisting diagonally, which was a concern of a number of forum members? The truss portion of the bridge hardly weighs anything, so you are good to go! Congratulations!!!
I like Jeff’s comments on grades. Based on my experience with this layout your grade would be fine, unless you run a really long train. I have only needed a helper on really long trains for my layout. Actually experimentation to see what I could handle, not for regular running. A long train makes a small layout look smaller. So your grade should be fine.
My problems were that without enough transition from 4% to 0% at the top of the grade, the pilot wheels on most of not all steam engines came off the track. Also the front two drivers of my Decapod came off the track. Also, as Jeff mentioned, the pilot on steam engines touched the rails at the bottom of the grade. I didn’t have any issues with my short diesels and cars. If you are running long modern cars and engines, they may have issues too. I had to keep taking up the track and shimming the bottom of the grades and shaving off the angle at the top of the grades until all trains ran well. I don’t ever want to go through that again! 🤕
