Adding bridge piers

So I dug out the stream bed and put in a culvert upstream. Now it is time to install the bridge abutments that will hold up my two bridges - one a steel truss (in front) and the other a simple wood trestle (back).

The steel truss sits on a couple of plaster cast abutments that look like poured concrete. Had to adjust them to fit my world - good that they cut easily with a saw and fine adjustments are made with a file. Checked the clearance and if the bridge track was at the right height and glued them to the styrofoam base with styrofoam board glue. A note - you have to be careful to use glue that is rated OK with styrofoam - the solvent based stuff will melt the blue foam. Not a good thing.

The rear abutments are made of wood. Once the glue is set, I will put a thin coat of shackle on them and paint them to look like concrete. The trestle abutments have a scale 12 by 12 piece of timber on the top. Then there will be six long 8 by 18 scale lumber beams - three under each rail.

I laid a piece of track on the trestle to see how it lined up. In the end, I will use bridge track rather than the normal track in this picture. Bridge track has its ties very close together as they actually are structural elements.

So - once the glue dries I can remove the bridges and get going with my scultamold and form the creek bed. Then the fun begins.

When this scene is done, I will cut and install a fascia with a cut out following the stream opening.