Small Trestle Set

What about the typical Lionel girder bridge ?

Great idea but my question is would not the bridge be sitting flat on the board, giving the appearance that it's resting on the stream?   That would not look realistic.

I thought about it and this type of bridge would work just fine if I were to use a 2 inch foam board over plywood then I would be able to carve out the stream so it would flow under the bridge.  That would look just fine. 

That's an excellent idea.  Otherwise, you would have to create an upward grade to your track in order to get the bridge off the platform.  However, grades can be troublesome, particularly if your layout is more sale like than toy like.  Besides, real railroads don't rise and fall with the terrain.  they usually either go around it or move it out of their way.  

I think it will work using the 2 inch foam over the plywood.  It's going to be interesting to see how the stream turns out since I basically have no idea what I'm doing.   Fortunately, there's lots of information from train board experts on the internet, here, and on Youtube I can use for reference to try to make the stream look realistic.

Check out the Cheat Run Trestle kit by B.T.S.

You can scratch build something similar rather easily if you don't want to pay $35 for a kit.

-Greg

Thanks for the tip.  I will check it out.

 Scratch built small bridge.

My wife came home with this one day, Michael's craft store.

This bridge is available with many different paints.

Larger bridges.  Smaller pieces are a separate purchase.

Larger custom deck bridge.  Designed and built to fit.

Construction of the layout had a lower, recessed area, for the creek/stream.  Most of the stream detail was done on the work bench, and installed from under the layout.  4" elevation difference, picture center.

Wow, those are great bridges and the scenery is outstanding.  Thanks.