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Colleagues,Sufficient spirits and barbeque were had by all at the site of the massive (it took over a million board feet of timber) S Curve trestle up on the west side of Lookout Pass, spanning the WillowCreek Ravine where the track loops back on itself for the 2nd time in the great zig-zag up the pass. Naturally we (in MSTS) don't build our bridges like they did. This one is built pretty much from the track down, and if I was doing it in HO, I would have a carload of basswood handy, and would be building it upside down on a template. (but for those of you haven't done it, trestles like this, on a lesser scale, in HO, are quite easy to build, and quite impressive when completed. The east 2/3 of this one consumes 3500 polys, but I also need to add 2 or 3 refuges with fire barrels, and a wooden headwall, which should bring the count close to 4,000. The west end, now under construction will have 1 or 2 refuges also and a wooden headwall. There are 3 or 4 other smaller trestles on this side of the pass, and a couple on the east side, all of which are also on curves, but the most interesting feature on the east side is the double horseshoe & sort of a bow-knot laid out on Borax Ridge, with a short tunnel & 16 degree curves.J. H. Sullivan
RE: RMD-4, NP Bridge Gang works through the weekend
Colleagues,Here is another image. The trestle is almost done. I have to apply the side panel "X" textures, create an abutment, which will also be wood, same at both ends, and also create a refuge/water barrel platform and apply it every 150' or so.J. H. Sullivan
RE: RMD-4, NP Bridge Gang works through the weekend
In this image, 3 refuges with water barrels have been added to the eastern 2/3 of the trestle. The top of the barrel is a water texture, same as used in the rivers, to indicate that it is brim full. Unfortunately this did not help much as this bridge was destroyed by forest fires twice, again, the most memorable being the great conflagration of 1910 which burned hundreds of thousands of acres, killed many people, and destroyed many entire towns in the western Montaina/Idaho Border area, essentially from Missoula west.J. H. Sullivan
RE: RMD-4, NP Bridge Gang works through the weekend
This bridge has a checkered history. It was built as part of the Wallace Branch construction about 1890, when silver & other good stuff was discovered in the area around Mullan & Wallace, ID. The intent was for this to be a temporary line, with a tunnel to be dug from the head of the first horseshoe at Borax (approximately) about 4 miles through the backbone of the Bitteroots under Lookout Pass, and emerging at a much lower level on the west side, somewhere around the head of the loop in the valley on the Idaho side. However, the panic of 1893 and other problems delayed this revision, and eventually the line did not produce as much revenue as originally though, so the line was never revised until 1960, when the trestle was in bad shape and needed replacement. At that time, it was eliminated by a switchback which remained in use until the branch was abandoned in 1980 along with the Milwaukee Road, over which it enjoyed trackage rights from St.Regis to Haugan, following a flood of 1933. Those of you who download this sim. and attempt to operate on this branch will need to exercise extreme caution and judicious use of the airbrake. The grade is reasonable, 2% or so westward to Borax, and from the loop in the valley, west to Wallace, thus the proposed tunnel would have made the maximum grade only 2% or so. However, the grade over Lookout Pass is 4% compensated in the last mile or so either side of the summit, although in the sim. it is about 3.6% actual.Much the same thing occurred at St.Paul Pass on the Milwaukee. An original survey would have continued the Milwaukee southward up Dominion Creek another mile or so, thence a 4 miles long tunnel would have emerged around Adair, but at the floor of the valley. It was considered cheaper to build the route as it is in the sim., and it was never revised either. The result was 70 years of operating problems, and great operating expense. The Milwaukee was abandoned in 1980.J. H. Sullivan
