Free-moN Wye and Overpass Module

The freedom of Free-moN allows wyes and interchanges to be a very interesting and entertaining feature of a show layout. For a while I've been building one based on the East Yard Wye in Lincoln, Nebraska, featuring the Rosa Parks Way overpass, heading into downtown Lincoln.

The past few weeks the scene has really come together, so I thought I'd share the journey of progress.



The greater module includes the Wye, BNSF's Hobson Yard, and extends further down the West yard leads and mainline. More on that another time perhaps.



You may notice a few interesting features that I did not include on the module, due to either compression or practicallity. The obvious one being the 4th route to the Southwest. This is the route you'll find Amtrak's California Zephyr just after Midnight (usually, WB) and again sometime between 3 and 6am (EB).

But the main feature is that Overpass, so without further delay, let's get to it!

The design is pretty basic, but a few identifying features beg to be scratch built, like the round end cross-members.



I used Styrene tubes and rectangle stock for the main piling and cross member, and capped it with half-round strips.








To be continued...

 

Next up is the sub-roadway.

The 4 lane overpass is actually two two lane structures. Atop the pilings run 4 concrete I Beams, with concrete filler over the cross members and additional thinner sub-bracing between adjacent pilings.

I found a matching I Beam from Evergreen products.


Above is the initial assembly with the thinner sub-cross members in place. The main cross bracing is 4 notched rectangle bits of styrene laminated together and placed where marked between the long I Beam strips. As a model build, this will be much more stable than "sectionalizing" the I Beams.

In total, there are 16 main cross members, each filling 3 gaps, made from 4 laminated precisely notched rectangles of styrene. That is 192 identical parts I need.


All praise the Silhouette Cameo Cutter! I did not have to make a single cut on these parts!



Here you can see the thicker cross members installed (and more waiting for lamination). You can also see some of them were cut leaving a post on the outer edge. These posts fit down into the piling tubes assembled earlier! The roadway is .080" styrene, getting fixed to the top.


Now it's starting to resemble something!






To be continued...

 

Oh this is soooo cool. I need a similar overpass on my home layout and this gives me some great ideas on how to construct it!

 

Nice scratch building technique on the highway !

What did you do to make the round ends on the cross members ?

Those 2 skinny columns would never be allowed in California earthquake country.

 

Thanks Brad. Cross member ends are Half-round strip styrene, diameter 6.3 mm, same as the width on the rectangle tube.

Yeah, they're just a *tiny* bit bigger out there... (extra points if you can name the location)

 

Berkeley?

 

Hint: It's on the peninsula.

 

It's in San Francisco just south of the depot with the view from Townsend Street looking east. The bridge is I-280 just before it ends. Those columns look like some that were "beefed up" after the 89 earthquake. Thousands were done that way.

 

San Mateo?

 

Too easy! Had many classes on the top floor in one of those buildings on the left. Great spot to watch CalTrain come and go!

 

Can you tell us a bit more about the parts you used? Any reference for I beams or tube size you used?

You did a real good job here!
Thanks for sharing.

Envoyé de mon SM-A510F en utilisant Tapatalk

 

Just an amazing idea and implementation!

 

Thanks guys.

Of course these will vary depending on the prototype, and offered sizes may still be a few scale inches off. The stock I used are as follows:

Pilings: 4.8mm diameter tube
I Beams: 7.9mm height I Beam (24" length)
Crossmembers: 9.7x6.5mm rectangle tube
Round ends: 6.5 diameter half round strip
Road surface: 2.8mm thick sheet (.10" misstated earlier as .08")

 

Thank you Mark for the list of materials for your highway bridge. I want to build one for my layout and your list will help very much.

Joe

 

Mark, which cutter model did you use and would you have any helpful links on the subject?

Thanks

 

I use the Silhouette Cameo. There's now a Cameo2 and Cameo3 model, all three are capable of the same cutting.

Using it is pretty straight forward. Draw the outline in the included Studio software (very intuitive), connect the cutter, and hit "print".

There are various cutting settings/speed/depth for different material, so I just go for max depth/pressure and cut with 2 sometimes 3 passes.
I found the thickest it will clean-cut is about .010" styrene, though I do 90% of my work with .020" styrene. Once the cutter finishes, it's just a few more light passes with the hobby knife.