I recently purchased some PVC trestle bents that are a foot high and while I can figure out the track deck easily enough, I am in a quandary as to how and if I should anchor the bents in some manner to the ground for the sake of stability, or do I let them float and beef up the structure by adding cross bracing or both?
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
This is good way of doing what you want to do from Cape Cod Todd's railroad.
Dave
The head is gray, hands don't work , back is weak, legs give out, eyes are gone, money go's and my wife still love's Me.
In my case I pounded the ground with a 2-pound blacksmiths hammer. Adding soil as needed until I had the ground level where I wanted it. Each bent took about 10 minutes of pounding until I was satisfied with the height and compaction. After the bridge was in place I added loose fill in the area to cover the footer beams so it looked more like piles than posts. Going on 11 years and still stable. I must add that this is sunny So. Cal. so I have no frost heave or any of that kind of problem.
Tom Trigg
Forgot one point. The stringers between the bents and supporting the track are about six foot long. Thus they transfer the engine weight across several bents preventing any from "digging in" and burying themselves.
I just let them float on a bed of stone!
They can move if needed with out breaking!
Still there!
This is the set of photo's I was looking for.
Thanks for the responses and the ideas and especially the photos which really illustrated the advice.
The general consensus seems to be to let the bents float on a fairly solid ground surface, which I will abide by once the weather here in the Piedmont in NC warms up, although today is the first day approaching 60F that also has rained or snowed which I hope is a trend for the better. When I see whats happening elsewhere I have no right to grumble about the weather. Tired of winter but aren't we all? Thanks folks.
Im pretty sure its not gonna end ever here in Maine.
When I read about the evils of drinking I quit reading.
Keep The Faith Baby!!
We go back to Daylight Savings SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!
Instant SUMMER!!!!!
Don't believe everything you think!
we have to wait till Sunday in California
winter ends on sunday in cal.??? wow theres more to that pacific time zone stuff than i thought
Just kidding although your a lot closer to it than we are
Grims winter ends on sunday in cal.??? wow theres more to that pacific time zone stuff than i thought Just kidding although your a lot closer to it than we are
OK.
I made a slight miscalculation in my excitement over the END OF WINTER.
(I DO NOT LIKE ......Winter.......)
Summer arrived here at approximately the same time as Mr.dwbeckett as I am roughly an hour west of him.
I celebrated Today......The First day of Summer........for me, by taking my Grandfathers Model'A' on a 90 mils lunch adventure.
What this has to do with trains is...I drove by the Depot of the Napa valley wine Train!
Nice" Save" Huh?
Ha ha ha ...nice
in reality the first day of spring is next week on 03/20/13 at least by my calendar .
Dave ( finally go to work on RR today )
Reality?
Reality is:
Instant summer when daylight savings starts.
Instant Winter when daylight savings ends.
ummm...reality if i cant see my track cause theres snow in my yard it aint summer I dont care what time it is
Grims ummm...reality if i cant see my track cause theres snow in my yard it aint summer I dont care what time it is
But.......But..........But...........
Another consideration: If your trestle is exposed to strong winds, you may need to firmly anchor the bents in some fashion. The strong winter winds in western North Carolina toppled two of my 35" trestles twice. My RR is on an exposed mountain side.
Nice photos of trestles here including mine LOL . I haven't anchored any of my trestles but I do try to mount them on a solid ground like stone, cement or packed earth. The one that was pictured was my first attempt and it was built as a solid structure then brought to the site. I believe the cross members add strength to the trestle but I have found that trestles are leaf magnets and the more bracing the more leaves they will catch and the harder it is to clean them out which is a real pain in the butt.
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