Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
Rene' It occured to me on the way home how we can solve part of your problem. You could build both trestles and have track over the steel trestle only. This would be the case where the railroad decided it needed to replace a wooden trestle with a more substantial steel structure. What 'cho think 'bout that? I will have to look at some specifics on the MEI N/Z trestle to determine how small a radius you can negotiate. What you do is cut the girders apart and glue them back together so they form a sort of a wedge shape. After you combine the wedges you have a series of chords that make a curve. Then you lay the flex track on top. I am quite fond of the MEI line of bridge kits and their bridge track for HO Scale is the best. I realize you may want something more than 8 inches high, but that is realy quite a distance in N Scale. That is equal to a tower 110 feet high. If you want more, I will tell you how to make nice concrete pedastles to set the steel towers. They are common in mountainous terrain to permit leveling of the foundation. Have you had the opportunity to inquire at your local store about the Model Railroad Bridges and Trestles book I mentioned earlier? I recommend it highly and it has a section on wooden trestles. The cover photo is a bridge scene in N Scale with Santa Fe F-units in red warbonnet paint. I don't have the book handy but I remember the bridge is a large steel arch, similar to a trestle. That gets me back to the first comment about a replacement steel trestle. The cool thing here is that you could model the wooden trestle as a bridge which has been washed out. Then your visitors would understand why you chose a fairly long main span over the stream. They would see what happens when you try and cheat nature. Unfortunately, this means alot of additional work for you to build essentially two bridges. Or you could make the old trestle appear to be burned up which would explain why the railroad went back in with a steel structure. Or you could just leave it in as the original alignment and put in the new structure as the new smoother alignment which would be used by your passenger and faster freight trains. The UP rebuilt one stretch of track near Sherman Hill in this manner to smooth out some grade and reduce the curvature. Give it some thought. - Ed
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag

Update Reply

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Model Railroader Newsletter See all

Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!

Subscriber & Member Login

Edit post

Post Body

Tags (Optional)

Subscriber & Member Login

Users Online

Search the Community