Underpass

When the heat index is over 100, what better place to be than a cool basement?  After playing with some plaster for making roads a couple weeks ago, I realized if we're going to make streets we're going to have to form the underpass.  In an urban setting these are really common points of contact with trains.  Over a century ago, railroads separated the grades of their track from the city streets when possible for better safety and speed.  I pass under a couple of these every day to and from work, so I want to get this scene right.  I've noticed that the sides of the girder bridges don't tend to be very high; in some cases there's a straight concrete wall along the road, in other cases it's a sloping hill; sometimes the support posts are along the sidewalks, sometimes along the center.  So there are lots of ways to do this. Early on in the planning I decided not to raise the level of the track, because that would interfere with the passing track coming in just off of this.  That meant the road would look like it was dug out after the line was there, rather than the line itself being raised to travel over the streets.  Which meant a deeper bottom and a greater slope to the road.  The first question was, how to make the slope of the road?  Instead of building beneath it, I cut a piece of homasote and attached a hinge to one end underneath.  Then I attached the other end of the hinge under the base, allowing it to naturally fall.  Way overbuilt for what it's going to carry, but it works.  I secured the bottom with construction adhesive.  I'll have to use some putty later to level off where each end meets the base, because those aren't totally flush.  Now I noticed on a nearby underpass like the one I'm modeling that the earthen hill on the sides flares out the deeper the road goes and the closer to the tracks.  So I had to cut out a small angle along each side.  

Next I'm going to attach some cardboard strips to support the embankment on the sides, and then we'll try out that Woodland Scenics plaster cloth.