Trestles

[flyingyankee616]

[:D] Hello,I'm looking into building my own trestles. Does anyone know a site that I can go to, for some good ideas. Thanks

[Anonymous]

Run, don't wak to your nearest hobby store that sells railroad model craftsman.. The feb issue or the jan issue. It has a great section on trsetles and has ho size plans which you can blow up (182%). THis has been a great issu, if you can't find it email me at [e-mail] and i'll send you a copy i have. I'm going to be building in about a week.
BIll

[csxt30]

That is the Jan. issue as I have it too. Also, I have a book called Bridges and Trestles from Model Railroader. It's 10 tears old, I think it may still be available. It really has good info. Hope it helps, John

[FJ and G]

There are basically 2 types of trestle wood for the bents, circular wood and squarish. I believe that the squari***ype was used for 19th century trestle work and the round is used still today (but usually less than 15 feet tall). Today, one can find a lot of wood trestle work in the southeast US in places like Arkansas and Texas, usually across marshy areas.

You won't find it much in the southwest desert because the dry gullies become torrents when there's flash floods.

I make my trestles with sticks that I find in the woods, then paint them blackish.

In addition to the bents, there are flat boards that are placed diagonally to aid in supporting the structure; but sometimes they aren't on the very low trestles.

I use wood glue to hold mine together.

Anyone else made their own trestle?

For square wood, I have used a table saw that makes quick work of 2x4s.

[flyingyankee616]

[:D] Thankyou very much for the information.

[Anonymous]

what i did was, I found photos of wooden trestles on line, then went about copying the design i wanted onto paper.....

when building, i use whitepine strips 3"w x 1/8"h cut to length as a base under the track where the trestle will be

Then I use a tabletop scroll saw (i dont own a table saw)to rip-cut white pine sheets 3"x1/8"x3' bought cheaply at homedepot down to to usable size strips.... then cut and built several trestle sections at a time.... after several sections are hot glued into place and connected with cross members, i stain them. I use red mahogany minwax stain.... which gives a nice chocolate color, close IMO to the color of the wooden proto trestles and rr ties that ive seen.

one of the things i like about this method is that if I goof, i caN pull it apart, pull off the hot glue and re-do it!

during "my" slow building progress... I support the track with Builders shims hotglued into place .... they are amazingly strong and can support my heaviest locos

[Roger Bielen]

When I built my trestle I ripped a pine 2 X 4 into 1/4" X 1/4" strips. I used an old blade so that the surface was rough. I drew my bent, I think I used 15deg., taped it to a piece of foam core board and covered it with wax paper and used it as a templet. I built them a bit longer than I though I would need and trimmed them to size as needed. For the bracing I used suitable sized bass wood, equiv. to 2" X's. At the visible joints I inserted HO scale spikes as a detail, they also added to the strenght of the joints.

[flyingyankee616]

[:D] Thanks Roger B.

[Anonymous]

Hey Flying yankee, i lost your email address. Send me a new email so i can send you some pics of my simple trestle building jig. It really helps. Bill [e-mail]

[FJ and G]

In June 04, there was a nice pile trestle article by Andy Sperandeo in MR magazine. They still use those, you know.

That's what I've started building. However, his plans don't include the bulwark (or bulkhead?) the part of the trestle that adjoins the sides of the slope. His trestle slopes gradually and so the piles get lower without cross braces. Mine is abrupt because it's a steep canyon.

I don't want concrete bulwarks, rather, I want wood bulwarks. I believe the boards are layed horizontally and stacked but I'm having no sucess on finding a picture of good wood bulwark, since this area of the trestle is harder to photograph.

[willpick]

David, while we don't have deep gorges here in florida[:)], we do have LOTS of canals[:)]. Both the FEC and CSX cross these canals(railroads go north/south, canals east/west) with several different types of bridges. Where I've seen the abutments made of wood(others are concrete/stone) they were made with "standard" 8x8 timbers. Some are dressed and interlocked, others are just stacked like log cabin walls---

HTH

[FJ and G]

HTH,

I noticed that wood is the prefered way in swampy areas and concrete is used where erosion from fast water could wash away a pile trestle. It really is something that trestles just like from the 1800s are still used today; albeit a lot lower ones.

[laz 57]

Its very easy to build the tressles you want. First do some research on the type you want, then make yourself a protype. Then after doing that make a jig so every piece fits in and looks like the other one. I had done this with my tressels that are approximatley 7 inches tall and resemble the kind that were found at the turn of the centurey. I ripped wood at various thicknesses and widths to achieve this Hope this helps I will try to post a section later.
laz57

[Sturgeon-Phish]

I built a trestle 48x10 out of some cherry I had left over from some projects. Very clear strong and stable. 1/2 x 1/2 "beams" in a double W truss pattern. A friend and myself put up a AF display in an annual train show and we use the tressles to join out tables. The whole layout including tressles is 8x24.

[flyingyankee616]

[:D]Hi guys ,sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner,had to take my computer to shop,just got it back wasn't as bad as I thought. I just wanted to thank everyone for your replies,I appreciate all the help. Regards Chuck