timmuir, on 23 December 2021 - 10:27 PM, said:
Interesting reads! Chicago has so much to look at and study in the way of bridges, architecture and the Elevated, not to mention the railroad action. That swing bridge you have to model is pretty cool. Do you have anything on it in the way of drawings, data, date of build?
No. But the MILW built two bobtailed swing bridges and I've already built the other one. Perhaps it's similar enough that i can use parts of it here.
I need 4 railroad bridges, 33 street bridges. I've built 1 railroad bridge and have started on 1 street bridge. A lot of modeling... fortunately most of the street bridges use the same basic design so perhaps there will be something I can leverage across multiple models.
This 1939 photos shows a number of bridges on the north side of the Loop (north is to the right).
Second from the top is the one I've started to build (N. Wells St). It's different because they put the CTA Commuter rails up on top. What I've done so far:
I think the most interesting one is one of the older rail bridges:
This is draw bridge for the east:west line that once carried the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin between far western suburbs and downtown. To the left the rails are above the glass topped trainshed of Union Station; to the right is a stub ended terminal squeezed between a couple of buildings. I think it looks really cool.