I have a couple bridges on my route that are on a grade and have a minor problem when I put abutments on the ends. On the upper end the abutment covers the railway ties. Are there abutments that won`t look this way? Is it even realistic for a railway bridge to not be level? I thought about changing the bridges so they are level but that would involve changing quite a bit of track since the bridges are in a long mountain pass that is on a grade the whole distance, but I`m not really worried about it that much. Just wondering if there`s better abutment to use. Right now I`m using the concrete bridge ends that come with trs2006. The only thing that looks a bit bad is it makes one end look different from the other.
bridge abutments
- Thread starter rjw1975
- Start date
BLACKWATCH
Mechanical Engineer
Have a look at the bridges made by bendorsey on the dls, he has modelled some very nice stuff that should suit a N.American type route like the one you are doing.
Back to the original question(s)...
I know exactly what you mean and it is kinda distracting. Abutments are made with the assumption that the track is level - the tops are always horizontal. To get the result you are after the creator would need to make several versions of each abutment - level, +1%, +1.5% etc. And they would need to be in pairs, the grade at the 'top' end of the bridge being negative. Never say 'Never' but....
Bridges on grades are not the norm, but are not wrong either. Depends on the location.
It just occurs to me while typing that spline bridges with abutments attached would solve the problem if you accept that (a) attached abutments never fit the terrain (b) attached abutments are stretched/compressed depending on the spline lengths and (c) the front face of the abutment won't be vertical which will look OK at the bottom, but the front face of the abutment will be undercut at the 'top' of the grade...
Andy
I`m using a spline plate girder bridge with abutments on it but they`re not thick/deep enough, they`re almost like a wall made 1 brick thick. It makes it hard to do the slope of the land at the ends. I don`t know if there`s other plate girder bridge splines with better abutments or not.