Scratch building a wood trestle in N scale.....


vato loco

vato loco

Just a Foolish Saint!
Well I have been kicking around what bridge type to use on my display layout. I have decided on a wood trestle type!:eek: I lookd at all the diffrent kits out there for a 11" radius curved bridge. I decided to make my own rather than buy a kit, this is my first wood structure. I made a Gig for the bents and made a rough draft. heres my first bent ever built:eek: for those of you with week stomachs don't look:rolleyes:

It looks pretty close to all the bridges I have seen. Question the span will be between 160 scale foot to 200 scale foot. How many bents and how far apart sounds right?
 
That's a pretty nice looking trestle bent, Chris. Nothing to be ashamed of there. If the bents will be the only support for the trestle, they'll need to be quite close together, probably no more than the length of an F unit apart. Timber trestles that tall were pretty shaky and not all that strong. You'll need to add longitudinal stiffeners to each cross brace on the bents as you attach the bents together and to the track deck. You''ll also need to plan for concrete footings for each leg of the bent. You can use seom square styrene stock for this but you'll find you'll need to cut a bunch of them for a trestle that size.
 
I have been thinking of One bent every 20'-30' and yes, I do plan on cross members hung from bent to bent to stiffen thinks up some so the train crews can turn down the pucker factor some!
 
Chris, one thing I found out about trestle building during my research is there aren't any two trestles alike. Where some railroads had minimum standards and a general design, most trestles where overbuilt for strength. The most common reason of this was local carpenters and construction crews were the ones doing the work and much of the design was on site and on the go. i.e, don't worry about rivet counters trying to say something is wrong. Stick with a general design with the right supports and you got it right.

I don't know if you want to fool with the itty bitty NBW (nut/bolt/washer) pins but they do add a lot of detail. This is tweezer work requiring a pilot hole, CA glue, and dipping each NBW in glue and inserting them. A real PITA but nice results. ;)
 
Plus, dont forget about safety decks and fire water barrel decks. Wood trestles were always catching of fire in steam days so most had water barrels every 25 feet or so. The safety decks were for track workers to duck out on if they were doing track work and a train came by. Those nut and bolt washers would look cool but doing them in N scale would probably ruin what little eyesight I have left. :)
 
OOPS! N-scale...Nope you don't want to do NBWs unless you have a microscope LOL :D

(that reminds me: I still haven't added my water barrels:p. Hmmm, I must make another note of that)
 
Yes I got plans fer the deck and barrels. Rex after looking at tons of trestles your right no two are alike. I figured my bridge will contain about 14 bents at 20' spacing and verious lengths......I got to save up for the rest of the track fer the layout and Then I can attack this monster!
 
Chris, that looks pretty cool! Do you have plans you are working from or are you just making this up as you go? If you are using plans where did you get them?:D:D:D
 
Screwjack said:
Chris, that looks pretty cool! Do you have plans you are working from or are you just making this up as you go? If you are using plans where did you get them?:D:D:D
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No plans:eek: Just looked at a few diffrent types of trestles, and just build it to fit! Just like the real railroads! :) It's actually easier than it looks just time consuming:eek::eek: Just make a gig for your bents and go man go!:D
 
Chris;Those look realy good! Are you working from some plans or just making it up? What kind of wood are you using? Do you know where one can get some plans?

Nice job!!!:D
 
Screwjack said:
Chris;Those look realy good! Are you working from some plans or just making it up? What kind of wood are you using? Do you know where one can get some plans?

Nice job!!!:D
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Crandell, gave me the site: http://members.cox.net/sn3nut/trestles part 1.htm and I'm tring to get it as close as possible to it. I just got done mowing a few yards so im off to the lhs to pick up some flex track and back to the craft store to buy some more Bass Wood and india ink! I hope to get the bridge done soon, so I can move on! :)
 
BTW as soon as I get the bridge done I plan to build to wood tunnel portals to to match the bridge!
 
Thank you arm chair, screwjack and Jim! I wouldn't really say wow or good job:eek: But it's a start........Plenty-o-booBoo's in it:(:eek: Hopefully the weathering job helps to hide them.
 
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vato loco said:
Thank you arm chair, screwjack and Jim! I wouldn't really say wow or good job:eek: But it's a start........Plenty-o-booBoo's in it:(:eek: Hopefully the weathering job helps to hide them.
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Chris;You are way to modest, even it yo had some little mistakes along the way it is one awesome looking trestle!:D I would lke to put one in my layout someday, but I would not even know where to start. Nice job man, you will definitely enjoy having it in your layout.:D
 
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