trying to console you:
as bad, as it is, imagine, what that tree could have done to your 1:1 house…
the bridge looks like one or two weeks of repairs.
the mine? splintered plexi?
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Thanks, Korm.
Yes, we’re thanking God the tree didn’t fall a few degrees to the north and take out the garage (now my wife’s shop, where she’ll be giving a yarn dying lesson today).
Not sure how bad the mine is, we’ll see. But yeah, a couple weeks on the trestle… when the heat dies down.
I was thinking that when I looked at the first pics you posted this morning. We got pounded pretty hard as well.
It sucks but honestly it looks like not too much structural damage (I personally) would probably fix it where it sits. Sure you gotta cut out and splice the track but your era RR deserves joints. Especially for wheel clatter and occasionally behind the shed for a couple drags between splicing’s.
However if you wanna say screw it all you could slap a steel deck plate between the spans and call it done!
YES, you can add decking steel support brackets off the I beam for cantilever walkway, railings and water barrels.
Here’s a primer for specs… https://www.aisc.org/media/yo1lndg0/b917_sbdh_chapter17.pdf
FWIW, I’ve always wanted to be the first to create a sharply-curved version of Scherzer-bascule rolling lift bridge. But the required conical geometry always seemed daunting…
Looking at pictures of rolling bascule bridges I’m not seeing anything that looks conical, just a round section (sometimes with teeth that match up to teeth on the ground to keep it from shifting). Where does the conical geometry come into it?
I’ve had some thoughts of creating a floating rail bridge like they just finished in Seattle myself. Can’t be too hard… and it’s an excuse to set up a water feature.
Ouch! I shall send Kid-zilla immediately!
I think it comes into play when you try to bend a rolling bridge around a curve.
That makes more sense, I missed that you want a bridge that rolled on a curved section. Yes, that would need a conical something or other.
Benjamin, I confess that I was being a bit preposterous…
With Rooster suggesting a steel deck, I had to up the ante. 
The tree guys didn’t show today, so I called to ask whazzup. They had to respond to an emergency: a big tree had fallen (well after our big storm) onto a house and went “right down the middle.”
I’m glad we weren’t that family, wow. Thank you, Lord!
He’d be welcome at any time, of course! 
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Cliff, the upside is that you have enough wood to timber the whole mine now, not just the diorama.
The mine complex didn’t survive the tree removal very well. Its two small trestles are gone. Oh well.
so it was a trestle-storm?
Are any of the mini complex buildings ruined? Or just the trestle pieces?
That sucks and is one of the big downfalls to our outdoor hobby.
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You must be devastated. That was a beautiful setup. Was that the automated section?
That’s a lot of re-building Cliff. Thank god you don’t build at my speed.
Knowing you, I suspect you’ll report back, that despite 2 colossal trees causing extensive damage there were only miner repairs.
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Craig, I’m not positive, but I think the buildings can all be salvaged. We’re going on a short vacation today, so I won’t be looking closer until next week.
Thanks, yes indeed.
Thanks Bill. Yeah, I was, especially because the building damage came from the tree removal, and not its falling. Something snapped or snagged, causing the destruction. And yeah, that was the animated part.
The second tree smacked the mountain, breaking the wood substructure and crushing a corner of terrain.
Fortunately the “hard shell” of ~2" thick mortar stood up. A couple bags of mortar will fix it up. Not sure about the internal wood; it mainly helped while building the mountain, and can probably be ripped out. Not sure yet.
The tree guys came later in the morning, and decided to get the crane… which caused another delay of several hours. But they did a good job. Here’s a video of removing just the top of one of the trees. It really puckered me up when the crane and tree went over the house.
