curved trestles

[tiger88mm]

I'm building a curved trestle with a two foot run and a six foot curve. What's the best way to put the top beam on top of the bents to support the train track. Also is this one piece or is this several pieces placed at angles. My top pieces are putting too much pressure and curving it back in the opposite direction and comming apart. Any one know how to ssolve this problem?

[Anonymous]

Take a piece of your curved track in the 6' radius, (make the total length of the track pieces the same as the length you will need when the trestle is finished, & lay it upside down on your bench..... cut your under tie horizontal support pieces in 6 inch lengths......... screw your vertical bents to the bottoms of these horizontal pieces w/brass # 6 srews (after pre-drilling the horizontal pieces to keep them from splitting while screwing them together)........ place the next section you build at the end of the first section......... cut the ends of the horizontal pieces off to match the curve you need and glue (or patch the ends together with a thin connector piece of wood.)....... then glue your other horizontal pieces into the already finished bents to help strenghten them.............. I have a 14' long trestle I built in the manner, and it has held up fine through 2 winters now.
Good luck and happy trestle bent building.............!!!!

[wdavis2]

I used a different approach when I built my trestle. It is a 90 deg turn on a 5 ft radius. It has survived one Ohio winter with no problems. I had a plywood template, made from scrap paneling, that I used to lay out the curve when I was constructing the abutments on each end. I turned this over and nailed 1" blocks about every 15" on the centerline. I then took three 1/8" strips and laminated them together around the outside of the curve and clamped them to the aforementioned blocks. After the glue dried, I repeated the process on the inside of the curve. I left the clamps on and installed the bents, upsidedown, by nailing them to the curved stringers I had created. After they were attached and braced to one another I turned the asembly over and pried off the plywood and spacer blocks. It made for a very sturdy assembly and once the track is installed it's not obvious the stringers are a solid curve and not individual straignt sections as the prototype would be. It met my goal of a good looking, yet sturdy assembly.