I have never built a wood trestle but I suppose you would do it the way I built my "metal" trestle.I drafted my design on a piece of paper laid it on my work board with a piece of wax paper over top. I put my pieces on top held in place by push pins while I glued them. this allows me to make identical sides, piers etc. I have also built small sheet metal bridges using bass wood available at most hobby stores I give them a couple coats of metal looking paint with rust stains.Experiment, do a small sample, have fun.
Lee
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Modeling the Klamath River area in HO on a proto-lanced sub of the SP “The State of Jefferson Line”
Hi i have only built one so far i used a pack of small craft sticks from walmart and white glue its not finnished yet still need to paint or age it some how... the small craft sticks are like 2 bucks i think lol my tressle was the size of 1 section of stright Eztrack HO scale hope this helps
Hobojim
I model in N scale, but the process is the same, regardless of scale.
First, get a copy of Model Railroad Bridges and Trestles, Handbook No.33, from Kalmboch Books. It has everything you'll ever want to know on the subject, with regard to shape and material dimensions.
For building materials, I use scale dimensional bass wood and gap filling AC, super glue.
Once you decide on the shape of the trestle bents, make a template to build them. The template insures that all the bents are identically shaped.
Build them from the top down. The height of each bent will be determined by the terrain, tallest at the center then getting shorter as the terrain rises at each end of the trestle.
I use styrene sheet and strips to make my templates. In the attached picture, you can see holes cut in the styrene to prevent gluing the wood to the template, I discovered the need for this the hard way.
I prefer to paint the wood before assembly, the paint will not penetrate the areas where the glue in applied. Painting first insures good coverage.
These pictures show the largest trestle I've built. It's 18" long and has two tracks.
Warning, the following is the opinion of the poster
For a really good finished product, get a section of Micro Engineering brdge and trestle flex track. It has the correct tie spacing and contour, as well as the gaurd rails and gaurd beams. I hate to see a well built trestle or open framed bridge with standard flex track. For me, it degrades the scene.
I hope this gives you some good ideas.
Pollyscale Railroad Tie brown is a water based paint. From a distance, it approximated the color of railroad ties. Up close, it falls short.
Why?
Because real railroad ties usually have shiny spots. The heavy creosote used to protect ties and prolong their life goes on thick and dries even thicjker and it reflects like more like a mirror than a dusty old piece of wood.
Spray or brush paint your trestle stock BEFORE you cut it for length with the Polly Scale Railroad Tie Brown.
THEN, brush on a light "coat" of Testors Flat Brown. For reasons unknown, Testor's Flat Brown is a pretty shiny paint when dry. it's also an enamel based paint, meaning it doesn't like water, and it won't like mixing with water based Polly Scale paint, either.
It will go on blotchy.
Just like real creosote.
That's one starting point, you can invent others yourself. Testor's Model Master "Leather" is an interesting looking color.
I've also done a trestle in either Polly Scale or Floquil Roof Brown, don't remember which, small spray can, yielded a rather nasty looking greenish brown, very very flat. After that dried, I stained it, just as I would raw wood, brush it on, wipe it off, with Minwax Red Mahogany. Not exactly a prototype look, as much as just a real nice looking finished model.
Buy some scrap, and play around with your own finishes. Find some pics or go see your objective in person, so you have a good idea what you want to end up with, and have some fun mixing and testing.
Who lnows, you might find the ultimate finish and become rich and famous.
:-)