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Bridge on 18" radius curve
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A wooden trestle may not be totally out of place on a layout in the mid-90s. Considering you only have a 4x8 layout I am going to guess you are not modeling a Mainline or even secondary route. There are a few branchlines out there today still with wooden trestles and in fact, on the shortline I work on, one of our lines still has two LARGE wooden trestles. Of course if you do use wooden trestles I would suggest staying away from running some of the larger cars or heaviest frieght but.... you can run some heavy frieght IF you were to use "idler" cars. Idler cars were nothing more than empty boxcars or flatcars that railroads would put on a train running over bridges with load restrictions. The "idler" cars would be placed between the loads therefor allowing the train to carry some heavy loads. In some cases the "idler" cars were even placed between engines but, the cars would have the equipment on them allowing the engines to be MU'ed. That being said, most branches using idler cars dissappered in the 60s and 70s. You'll be safe running most 4 axle power and anything below a few coal hoppers if you do decide to go with a wooden trestle. Or go with the idler car idea and add an operational challenge to your railroad
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