a trestle bridge

korm kormsen

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thanks to some kind of activity-fit, i am building again.
a ten foot trestle.

to stand on a downwards-slope of 6%, the trestle will be going up, as well with 6%.
so the highest trestle will be 18" high.
the distances between trestles will be 6".

on a quickly nailed together jig, i marked the different lengths for the various trestles.

the ties, posts and beams (10 x 10 mm) are from cedar and the boards (2 x 10 mm) from

pine.

the posts are connected with cramps (just tackered), the boards are nailed on with

shoemaker nails.

trestle01.JPG



for the deck of the bridge (road"bed"?), i made another simple jig.
at the head i nailed on a single LGB-tie, on one of the sides i clamped a board as

arrestor.
such i could position two ties, fix them with the movable tieweb, nail every second to the

rails, and later take out the spaceholder ties.
(the 1 mm thick ruler beside the tieweb became necessary, because the carpenter cut

the ties 2 mm too long)
the rails are LGB 5' long profiles.

trestle02.JPG


trestle03.JPG



the shortest nails, i could get here, are a wee bit too long.
to pinch them off a bit, would have meant pre-drilling and a lot more work.
so i choose another way.

after lightly hammer in the nails (the surgical tweezers did prevent a lot of finger-hits) and

driving them in, using a setscrew head down and the hammer, i bent the nails sideways

over the railfoot with the pincers.

then i helt the pincers from above upon the nailheads and hammering on the grip of the

pincers, drove the nails down on the foot of the rail.

in the eyes of many, this will not look nice, but work under the assumption, that on a

bigger layout the general impression will supersede details.


trestle04.JPG


trestle05.JPG



after i leveled the bench more or less, and prolongated it to ten foot, i connected the two 5 foot pieces with LGB fishplates, and screwed the beams to the ties.
trestle06.JPG


trestle07.JPG



now comes the interesting part.
for the trestles to stand straight, when everything is finished, they have to be fixed a 3.5°

inclinated to the beams.

my new jig (a board, sawed to the correct angle, and hindered from falling over by blocks

clamped to its sides) seems to give the adequate inclination.
i sawed a little groove as arrestor for the file, filed a little inclination, and am ready to nail

the first trestle to the beam.

trestle08.JPG



as soon, as i have repaired my flexible elongationshaft for drilling, i will continue...


=======================

edited - had forgotten some pics. sorry
 
Stone me Korm, that is one excellent build.
Luvly Jubbly!
 
Very nice trestle lovely wood work :D
 
korm kormsen said:
thanks for the comments.
the real challenge in this case is, that i try to build this trestlebridge without any drop of glue - if possible...
It takes a bit to impress me Korm but this is impressive. But why no glue? Are you going all green on us ?
 
after predrilling i could easily nail the trestles to the running beams.

i used the same nails for this, that had to double as railspikes.


trestle09.JPG


trestle10.JPG



to stabilize the trestles, again i use the above mentioned boards.
tiny shoemakernails lightly hammered into the boards, and then driven into the posts not with a hammer, but with a adjustable tweezers, makes for good and stable connections.

trestle11.JPG


trestle12.JPG


trestle13.JPG



now i just have to play around with the placement of the boards, to find an optical pleasing distribution.

trestle14.JPG


trestle15.JPG
 
Korm, this is a superb Trestle. But not wishing to rain on your parade, what are the Nails made of? Will they Rust? If they do that is good. Many many years ago I built all my own Track using Bonds Brass Nails to hold the Brass Rail to Timber Sleepers. The nails were shaped a bit like a Number 7 and looked great. However in the Great Outdoors, the effect of Wood Getting Wet, swelling etc used to push the pins out. Apparently a well known problem with Rustfree Pins and Wood. So it your pins do indeed Rust a bit the effect is to stop this lifting process.

I resolved the problem a bit by doubling up with some pins that Did Rust. The previous solution of hammering the Brass Pins back in on some 50 Yards of Track each time I wanted to Operate was just not fun after a Couple of Years or two. I imagine on a Trestle this just would not be a viable option.

In the end even with my little fix I gave up the Ghost and bought Peco Tack.
JonD
 
over---over over---over
under---under

might look a bit better, if that makes sense.
That way the battens will be level when the bridge is in place.

It's an inspirational piece of work all the same, and its good to see you moving on with the indoor layout.
 
It is beginning to look very very impressive Korm.
As to the truss arrangements, there are quite a lot of designs here are a few that might help

The first one might take some time.........

complicated.jpg

raggedy.jpg

Trestletrees2.jpg

straight.JPG
 
trestle22.JPG


looked at with bad light, i am content.
that raises a phylosophical question.
for the famous "10 foot rule" (if it looks acceptable from 10 ft, be content)
- how does this apply to 10 ft long objects? at the nearest or at the farthest part of the object?

thanks for all, who councelled me on how to put the boards.
after some tries, i settled for this. the individual boards now are more or less horizontal, while the whole enhances the impression of a steep ramp.

trestle23.JPG



so, the mainpart is done.

trestle24.JPG


now i just have to set the foundations and make one 18" prolongation on the low side.
 
Absolutely excellent Korm. Can we see it with a train on, go on , please please :P
 
Amazing, but what would you expect from Korm? Always so organised and professional it makes me envious. I'd say without equivocation that your trestle would easily pass the 150mm rule!
 
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