Anyone ever made a highway overpass over tracks?

This might not be of any help, but, instead of an overpass, have you thought about perhaps building an underpass instead?  As the headroom in a tunnel needed for vehicles is less than you would need for a bridge crossing the tracks, you could employ a gentler grade for the entrance. It would also solve the potential visual problem of the 'bridge to nowhere'.  Just a thought. 

Max, I have not built an overpass, but I know that there are numerous forum members who have done so, as we have seen their photos posted over the years. The Scenery forum has seen some excellent work in that regard. I hope some of those folks respond to your thread.

The one thing to  be aware of, I think, is that the approach to the overpass not be too steep, as you don't want your drivers slipping and sliding in ice and snow. Perhaps a path perpendicular to your terminating road, across the face of the ridge, would be preferable to heading up the slope head-on. I don't know how that would work, given space limitations.

 

I must say that I think that your scenery is well-done. It is always great to see PW stuff mixed into more hi-rail or scale scenery. (I'm a PW guy,too, but need to work on the scenic aspects of the layout.) 

I would second Nicole's suggestion of using an underpass. The approach grade for a bridge will be very steep, take half your existing road length, and be a bridge to nowhere at the end of the layout. An underpass, on the other hand, only needs 4" of clearance for vehicles and is a more graceful transition "off-layout". Plus you get another scenery opportunity for the embankments on either side of the road.

You would need to start the incline 9-12" further back from the tracks than where the road ends in that photo. And just my opinion, but a nice covered bridge would look swell above the tracks. You only need to raise the land up 5" or so. I don't think the incline would be so drastic.

In Andover, MA, Harding Street rises quite sharply from Rt. 28, and goes over 2 main line tracks. For decades, that bridge was made of wood. The new bridge is steel and sits on roughly the same angle as the road. Look it up on Google Maps.

Considering the photo you attached...

 

Any chance of ditching the small shed adjacent to the beacon tower and sashaying the road around the tower towards the bottom of the photo and using a regular grade crossing?  (The rocky cut appears to dissipate towards the bottom of the photo?)  It could be another accessory (lights/gates/bell sound) for that corner?.

 

In fact, if you could relocate the beacon tower to the top of either corner hill (Nicely scenicked, BTW!), you'd have even more room to bend the road and/or add another city/town tax revenue-producing commercial establishment to the metropolis...and locate the grade crossing even farther away from the cut.  The beacon tower, seems to me, would make more sense and be more dramatic atop the hill.  But, that's just this guys' opinion, of course.

 

BE SURE to show us how you resolved this picklemma!  And, taking a cue from der meister, herr Policastro, write an article for OGR with photos!

 

Viel Gluck!

 

KD

 

 

 

Max, as all have said, an overpass would require a pretty long approach.  It can be done as you can see on my layout, but I agree that an underpass might be wiser in your location because the side walls leading down would not block the surrounding area on your town like they would raising up to an overpass.

I am in the process of making a Superstreets overpass above my mainline.  I'm at work now but will take pictures and post them tonight.  Having to arrange the overpass so that SS vehciles will smoothly go over it is a bit of a challenge, and at this point I have not decided what type of bridge structure (metal lattice, concrete, suspension) I want to have. 

The Lionel Super O Showroom Layout

Crow River makes an nice O scale Highway overpass.  Since its a road it can be much steeper than a train grade.

Here is a pic of Crow RIver Model

I don't allow it to snow in my world so grades can be steep.

 

 

 

 

 

Jim

 

Exactly what i did.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the compliments and suggestions everyone. I think I'm going to go with Nicole's idea and do an underpass. What I'll probably do is cut a rectangle out of the plywood on the layout wider than the road so there's room for scenery then use pink insulation foam board to make a tunnel going out to the side of the layout then cut a rectangle out of the 1x4 (I believe). I might also add some lights to the inside of the tunnel as well. Again, thanks for all the suggestions and if anyone has some more ideas on how I can do an underpass feel free to share! Thanks!

Change of plans... After looking more closely and some advice from my Dad, I've decided to not do the overpass or underpass. The overpass would be very difficult to construct with the way the hill is and I don't want it to start far back on the road. I decided against the underpass because my Dad informed me that it's not likely for a road to run under railroad tracks AND a mountain. I try to keep things as real as possible on my layout and after some thought about what my Dad said I started to agree with it. Instead, I'm going to take part of the road up close to where it dead ends and curve it going out to the left of the tracks/hill and do a regular grade crossing. This will give me enough space to add some apartments or something along with a parking lot on the right side of the road. Plus, it'll give me a chance to add some more scenery around the crossing. Max

Good idea...sounds familiar!

 

I still hope you'll take some before/after photos.  They're helpful to all of us faced with a similar situation.

 

KD

Skip

Where do u get the color photos of the showroom layout?

I know these are from "The Wonderful World of Trains"

 

Great shot of the highway overpass

Thx

Joe  

There is now an HD version of the "Wonderful World" on YouTube, which is where I got screenshots:

 

Cool---Love anything Super "O"

 

Thx Rob