Help on Elevated Main Lines....

Hi Wood:

There are many elevated track systems commercially available. Our friends at the NJHR market one under their Silk City product line. Also Forum member Jim at Bridge Boss sells a system. Also TW Design has offered a system for a number of years.

If you plan on covering the sides with a rock like or wall effect, you might want to consider building your own which is comparably easy. I went that route as the commercial systems were not available at the time I constructed mine.

I also used a 10" height that allows for better viewing. You might want to consider this as well.

Call me or e-mail me if I can be of help.

Hope to see you and your wife soon.

Thanks Brian,  I will just call you later this week.  If for nothing else then to just catch up.. 

I don't know if this will help or not, but I have a similar situation where one of my main lines runs parallel to, and above the other. In my case, my benchwork was designed for this, by having the two levels. I filled in the space between the levels with styrofoam, then added rocks and scenery to make it look like a mountain wall.

REV

Silk City Bridgeworks, contact at silkcity@netzero.com

Bev, Thank you for the view of your impressive layout.  I did not build open girder benchwork and that does pose a bit of a problem.  Not unsurmountable but, it makes a large berm with a tunnel difficult because it would be hard to reach anything that derails.  I like what you did and open girder would make my life much easier. 

John, the silkcity bridge/trestle is exactly what I am looking for.  I will check out their site and see how I can adapt this to my needs. 

Talk about impressive...  That looks like a club layout.  Is it??  If it's yours, I'm coming to visit....   Wow, huge is an understatement...  And, meticulously done....

Hi Wood. Here are some photos from customers of Bridgeboss. Please consider us also for ELevated bridges and Viaducts,

thanks,

jim r from bridgeboss.com

Thank you Jim and I absolutely will check your site and will respond to you.  They look terrific.

Wood...here is a picture of what I did in my city area to make another level of trains.  This is a combination of components that Jim at Bridgeboss made for me and a few details I added that I made locally....

Alan

Alan,  I do like the girder truss and I-beam appearance of the bridge.  They give a very realistic appearance.  Also I am totally into weathering and want to give it some rust, etc.  Eventually, it would be cool to create a work crew section where they are sandblasting and painting a section.

I haven't seen pictures of a rising or lowering elevated section.  I want to begin the initial rise with a berm and then transition to a girder bridge.  I am certain when I talk to Jim he will answer this question.    But does your bridge begin at height or do you rise from a lower level and do you have a picture?

Wood,

  I highly recommend Jims trestle system.  Its easy to work with, relatively inexpensive and it looks realistic.  I used it for a subway, but it can also easily be used for an elevated main line.  You can paint it any color and weather it. 

Rich

www.toytrainsontracks.com

Hi Wood, that is the NJHR club layout. we are in Paterson NJ, come down and visit us for a first hand look. the SilkCity website is under construction now. for info please email us or come for a visit.

Wood...mine is completely elevated and does not have approaches as you are wanting to model but as Rich states above, that would not be difficult to achieve.  I wanted to model an older "EL" design thus the reason why I went with the open web girder.  I still have to add walkways and railing which hopefully I will get done sometime this year.  You can see the groove and holes along the upper edge of the side girder which will receive the walkway.  In addition, I wanted the black painted look with some rust and weathering streaks here and there which I have not added yet...

Alan

Jim, do your pieces need to be fastened to the surface on which they rest (e.g. screwed in from underneath) or does their weight and gravity keep them securely in place?

- Mike

Mike...I am sure Jim will chime in but the short answer is "no", you don't need to permanently fasten them down.  Since I wanted a very sturdy setup, I put a drop of Gorilla Superglue on the bottom of each support.

Alan

Thank you Brian, Rev, John, Jim, Alan and Rich for your pictures and explanations.  This will be a fun project and add a very interesting and unique detail to my layout....  Time to start collecting real data and configuring my needs.  It will takes some time, but I will certainly post photos of my projects progress.....

Wood,

For the covered berm portion, graduated wood supports work great. That is what I used on either side of my trestle, which maintained the 2% grade throughout.

 Location for trestle 

Trestle built on-site 

Finished 

Good luck!

Alex

Alex - That is beautifully completed.  I like the appearance a berm has on the layout.  True to life and provides another eye catching modeling effect.  Wow, and thanks for sharing those pictures....  What a spectacular trestle...

Wood,

Thank you. Here is another shot of the trestle area . . .

(Click on images for better detail.)

. . . and of the 'other' graded track; for after all - what goes up must come down, and vice versa. 

Alex