This is my first try at building Trestles & Bridges so please forgive any mistakes. The Trestle Bents are built using Cedar wood fence boards cut to size. The Bridge is built using treated 1x 6 boards cut to size. I built 14 trestles using Garden R.R. methods in the April 2000 edition. The Bridge was built using George Schreyer's ideas for a Howe Truss Bridge except I glued all construction instead of the threaded tie rods. I used welding rods for tension rods and cut plastic rivit heads to simulate tie rod nuts. As you can see the bridge is not finished. It is still attached to the jig drawn onto my work bench. I built a jig for the trestle bents also. All parts were glued with Titebond III and pinned together with brads. I know the rods & brads will rust so I hope the stains will look alright,if not I'll stain them later. I hope the pictures come thru ok. TOM http://s569.photobucket.com/albums/ss134/evenfall575/bridgetrestles/
Tom:
Looks as though you have had entirely too much fun. Well done my friend, however I would recommend not cutting any more treated lumber. Sawdust from treated lumber not so healthy to breathe, especially since green copper preservative is so easy to get and apply afterwards. Treated lumber is not 100% treated; it only soaks in about ¼ the way in. After running through the saw, you now have untreated wood exposed, thus defeating the purpose of using treated lumber in the first place. I would recommend treating the timber bents with some "green copper" preservative, available at Home Depot and Lowes, and other such stores.
Tom Trigg
Thanks for the advice ttrigg. Treated lumber is so prevalent around here I thought I would try it in the R.R. to see how it lasts. I could have built it using cedar. The reason I built the bents using cedar is they will be in contact with the ground and I figured the bridge would be higher and not have to deal with the constant moisture in the dirt. I'll give the bridge a while to weather before I coat it with preservative. Btw I rolled my table saw outside to cut all the wood because of the toxic nature of the treated boards. TOM
Tom
Well I see that we both share a bit of the same logic. When I built my bridge:
I used cedar fence boards for the bents and redwood fence boards for the "bent caps" and the bridge stringer and decking. I used the "green copper" preservative on the bents, for the stringers and decking all I did was wipe on some thinned "gel stain" (a dark color, don't remember which one, thinned 1 part gel stain to 3 parts turpentine.) The thinned stain allowed me to put on several coats that soaked in very quickly.
Just in case you think you are seeing things, that photo is not an optical illusion. The bridge is a 14+% grade, its only for the trolley which I anticipated to burn up in two years from the abuse, but it is still holding up very well after 4 ½ years. The bridge is not showing any signs of deterioration where it is contact with the dirt.
Sorry somehow my pictures were locked. They are public now. TOM
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