I spent some time working on my freemo module over at the club space tonight. I had three work-in-progress buildings with me to double check the spacing and layout of the town at one end.
I had laid out the building locations using paper templates, cut to measurements from the Walthers catalogue, and for the most part that seemed to have worked well. The two rix bungalows turned out to need more space than I had allowed, mainly because I chose to use the version of the kit that includes a brick porch.
I realigned the road slightly at one end, and using a Rix wooden overpass kit that one of the other members has built for another module, I was able to previsualise the size and shape of bridge I will be adding to my module.
I had already added ramps to either side of the gap to build up the road surface to a more 'double stack friendly' height, but once I saw the Rix kit in place it was obvious that I didn't need as much space as I had thought, so I was able to remove one of the added pieces and replace it with a much smaller ramp.
I will be cutting back the edges of the embankments on either side of the bridge to give a shallower angled slope, which will make the trackside area much more realistic. The bridge itself will be a scratchbuilt structure based on a Norfolk Southern prototype in Virginia.
I took my completed gunderson stack cars over to the clubhouse to try them out, and discovered that my measuring for the bridge height on my freemo module was a little off. I'm using 2 inch insulation foam for the landscape, and that puts my road surface with another 1.5 inches height difference needed to clear doublestack cars.
I'd suspected that I might not have enough height for the bridge to clear doublestacks, but as I planned to model an arched bridge I hoped that there would be enough distance to get the extra 1.5 inch height difference without needing to raise the road level. Sadly there wasn't.
I've added extra 'ramps' onto either side of the bridge road to help give extra clearance to the taller trains.
This is the bridge I am planning to build for my module, it's based on a prototype on Elkton Rd in Virginia, and has a really interesting metal frame with wooden road surface. I will need to make my version slightly more extreme to clear the trains.
