7 The bridges of Mahaska and Monroe counties

I'm finding more and more interesting stuff to include on the layout. A couple of weeks ago I surfed to bridgehunter and saw some quite interesting information about bridges on the line (Scroll to the bottom of page 1). 

That led to a slight reevaluation of what to include. There are enough bridges over Muchakinock Creek in Mahaska county and Miller Creek and its tributaries in Monroe county in the 23 miles between Oskaloosa and Albia that at least some must be included. They can serve as mini scenes as well as scene breakers since I plan on having discrete scenes and the scenery will not be continous. This latter as a result of wanting to include the interchanges with the Wabash, CBQ and CRI&P in a functional way with the tracks in the right place versus the M&StL tracks. This means I have to come up with some off scene way to get the other railroads back to the right side of the M&StL tracks. Black boxes might help here and strategically placed scenery will help.

Look at the placement of the trees at this Pratt through truss bridge over Muchakinnock Creek (go to photos 5 and 6 or 23 and 31) for instance. The location is north of Givin, south of Beacon in Mahaska county, near Kent Avenue and 290th Street.

This link take you to google maps and a photo by John Marvig of the bridge looking north in the direction of Beacon / Oskaloosa. Most likely the view of this part of the modelrailroad would be from the east or right of the picture.

In the same vein, Eddyville has moved up in the list of priorities. Originally I didn't want to include it despite having a long passing siding and a double ended freight spur. It also was the only passing place in later years, after online coal traffic had almost completely dried up. But the discovery of the sand and gravel operations and its scale have led to a reevalution. The interchange with the CRI&P was also a bonus though it might be more difficult to include. But originally I only wanted the bridge over the Des Moines river, more specifically the first half of a through truss span from each end, as a prop to change levels.

This is a small bridge on the south end (Bridgeport side) of the Des Moines River crossing. The crossing consists of this bridge, a plate girder bridge, a long dam (I believe it was originally a pile trestle) and the long bridge consisting of 7 Pratt through trusses spanning both the Des Moines river and Muchakinnock creek. Pictures taken from Bing maps.

And finally just one reference to one of many crossings of Miller Creek.
Note the relative light construction of all the truss bridges. I believe the M&StL's Mikado 2-8-2 steam engines were not allowed on this line. I'm not aware of restrictions on the diesel locomotives though.