Love of Bridges
John Allen loved bridges. His mountain railroad was ideally suited for
bridges. Rather than crossing the mountains, it followed the mountain
valleys crossing streams and rivers, gullies, ravines and gulches, even
canyons, gaps and chasms.
John Allen built his bridges of
wood, stone, concrete and steel.
He built deck, pony and through
bridges, beam, arch and truss
bridges, over 100 in all. He built
short bridges over streams, such
as the one in Helengon Gap, and
long viaducts over the major
cities, such as the one over Port
and another over the
classification yard of Great Divide. He built low bridges in the valleys and
high bridges in the mountains, some spanning from one peak to another,
such as the Scalp Mountain Arch Bridge.
In designing the backdrop for the TrainPlayer layouts an effort has been
made to include, even feature, John Allen's bridges through the use of
actual photographs. A notable exception is the Great Devil's Gulch Bridge
that was never built. Here a copy of the arched bridge across Helengon Gap
was superimposed across Devil's Gulch.