Well, I ran into a snag concerning the bridges. The original plan was to have the Warren truss bridges side by side on top of the combined Atlas piers. Not gonna happen. After I got the bridges assembled and painted I test fitted them to the supersized pier, well that's when I discovered that the resulting track spacing was too wide for the track on the lift out, where the river scene is going to be. As Eeyore would say "Oh, Pooh."
So I surgically removed one side of each bridge and placed them side by side to check the track spacing.
The spacing came out to 2-1/8", which, happily, is the track spacing on the lift out section.
I bought some Plastruct .060" sheet and 1/4" I-beams. I measured length and width of the side by side bridges and cut a piece of .060 sheet to fit. Next I cut the 1/4" I-beam to form stringers and cross pieces, and glued them in place on the bottom of the sheet.
Next I cleaned the paint off the bottom of the bridges and glued them to the new deck assembly. It was easy to clean the paint off as it is acrylic and has not yet been sealed.
Next, it was paintin' time again! I decided that in order to make the deck bridges and truss bridge assembly match better, I should strip and repaint the deck bridges, which I did. I also made real sure not to leave black areas this time.
I used straight pewter gray diluted with water and painted the deck bridges and deck assembly for the truss bridges. I also hand painted between the ties on the truss bridges with pewter gray. I didn't come out the nice uniform color that the airbrush paint did, but that's OK as I think it will give the exposed deck a more weather-beaten appearance. I also used some Testors Model Master steel color enamel to paint the guard rails. The deck bridges have had the ties touched up with some flat black enamel to hide where the steel got it where it shouldn't have ought to been. This pic was taken right after I did the guard rails on the truss bridge. I also used some Testors contour putty and filled in the areas where the braces were removed from one side of each truss bridges, as well as the open areas on the bridges where they would have set on the Atlas piers.
I'll let this dry for 24 hours, then form the contour putty to shape and use flat black enamel to touch up the ties and puttied areas. Then I will Dullcote the bridges. When that is done I will weather them, then reapply Dullcote. I want to seal the paint before weathering in case I need to strip the weathering and redo it.
I found this nice picture of a truss bridge deck online. It's the Columbus and Greenville Railway bridge over the Yazoo river, not sure what state, Mississippi maybe?
Now, if I can just make it until 3:30 tomorrow afternoon, I have 12 days off from work!
I should be able to get something done on the railroad during that time!