Bridge over Beer Can Hollow

WOW!

i think i may have drank beer there.  however it was before i had a car.  it's been 30 years but i can still remember old mil hill and empty hole (somebody made a fortune picking cans out of that one).  i never will forget being backed into a wooded field with the window down and my hand out the window when a coon dog came up and sniffed my hand.  bout crapped myself.

Sweet!

Amazing scene.

I'm not sure a bridge like that would have been used to span a depression with an old dirt road. It would make more economic sense for the railroad to use an earth fill with a stone arch bridge or small girder to cross the road. Another possibility would be a a small trestle. Of course, there's usually a prototype for everything but that's just how it strikes me.

 

nice, great job.

any pointers you can lend on making the trees in the back drop?

Thanks,

Well done!

Andre.

Pretty slick, Norm.  Pretty slick scene.

 

George

Beer Can Hollow Preservation Society nixed earthen fill as it would spoil the natural splendor. There was also concern that a stone arch would host pagan rituals or 90's rave parties.

 

 

LOL

I think the local college fraternity TAPPA KEGA DAY, had their bush party's there? 

J Daddy, those are SE Super Trees. I spray bomb them flat black, dip them in diluted carpenter's wood glue, then sprinkle different types of ground foam on them. Usually I bomb them outside and leave them in a big box under the layout. I then dip and flock as I plant them on the layout. I try to use Heki flock on the ones closer to the viewer. I don't get too crazy about getting perfect shapes because if you look at wild trees they are actually pretty screwy looking.

Coincidentally, I'm installing my Atlas-O bridge right now also. I'm definitely going to try to emulate what you're doing. I've been puzzling out how to make pretty much the exact same kind of transition including the support of the track leading to the bridge with a retaining wall. How do you tack down the bridge so it doesn't move or shake loose?

Will a clown live in the cabin?

 

pagan rituals? 

 

 

Jinkies!

 

 

George

Norm

 

Very nicely done!!!!!!

 

Alex

At a quick first glance, I thought this was a shot of a real bridge. Looks amazing

Top notch modeling.

Hmm.  I was a member of I FELTA THIGH myself.

 

George

Nice work.

 

Just curious, will there be a pile of beer cans in the "hollow?

In the Rio Grande Valley near Taos there is a spot where folks have been tossing beer cans for decades... A pretty big rusted pile not easily seen from the road. Could make for an interesting model feature.

Great modeling Norm

From a guy, who picks-up trash.  Beer cans have evolved from steel/coated, to steel/top coated and may be the bottom, with aluminum/coated sides, to all aluminum.  The pull tab has also had evolution changes. Oldest, no tab at all,Then Pull tabs that are to be discarded, to current issue pull/push inside the can tabs.  Can metal thicknesses are also evolutionary. It would have been difficult to crush with your hand a very old, steel, beer can.  Aluminum beer cans today are very light weight. 

 

Same discussion applies to glass beer bottles, which have been replaced with plastic, though you don't see beer in plastic bottles. IMO. 

 

That being said, you can find most anything on a daily walk or under a beer drinking bridge that can date to when you were in college or before.   The stuff just never goes away.  My favorite find is the softballs and baseballs that float down the creek from the Dick's Sporting Goods fields about 10 miles upstream. 

 

Please model all accordingly. 

 

Slow day

Mike CT  

 

A pleasure to look at your modeling…….  beautiful work…...

Norm looks fabulous!  I can only hope my scenery will look 1/2 as good.

Hmm...should do a blown out root cellar instead..

 

 

 

 

Xray, I ended up boxing out the approaches. I blocked the bridge up for support so it could be connected it to the approach tracks. Once level, I installed the abutments and shimmed them a bit to snug up to the bridge shoes. The bridge is resting on the shoes and is removable by sliding the track connectors back. This made it easier to build the scenery around and under it.

 

 

Ok - I have to ask, where are the O scale beer cans in beer can hollow?  I used to go collect beer cans on the other side of the tracks back home.  Still have about 300 of them in my attic.  A couple rusty cans of Blatz should keep you era specific. 

Very nice.  I appreciate the idea of taking something very basic, the Atlas bridge in this case, and doing it very well.  I like to call it simple elegance.

I am thinking a few mounds of Yuengling cone tops would work at some point. Anyway, this section got its name when my wife asked if the beer can was part of the scenery..

 

Fantastic scene Norm!

A beautiful job and now for the rest of the layout. i was thinking of a person and a bag picking up cans. i guess yu would have to paint a thin dowel and cut to the size of cans. I still have my double track bridge to assemble. Hope it turns out asw well as yours.

 

Phil

Great job Norm! I too thought it was a real pic of a bridge LOL

Love it!

Great job Norm!  The clown was creepy though.  Btw, if you want to see some great beer can piles, look by some of the old deer camps in the U.P.  I've found pre-prohibition beer bottles, as well as cone top cans.

Did you use any static grass in there, or is it all ground foam?

LOS, right now it's just greened up with SE Adirondack Blend and some dirt. As I work on this section more I will add more trees and ground cover including some static grass.

I knew I had a bag in the attic with my favorite cans in it.  Here they are,  Schmidts nature scenes were big.  My favorite is the 75 Steelers Iron City can.  I was a Jack Lambert fan, wore #58 I high school and college.  And three Old Frothingslosh's!  How lovely.  But, they are all empty.  Much more hollow than your hollow.  Need some cone tops!   

Norm,

 

The more i look at this scene you've created, the more it look's real. I'm amazed.

 

I'm in the process of remodeling my entire layout room and layout, if you don't mind i will email you and get some scenery tips. The look I'm going for is the scene you have posted above. I won't be ready for scenery for a few months, I'm thinking around April/ May.

 

I'll be in touch,

Alex