27 January 2020

6. Stage 1-January 2020 G The High Trestle is Finished

Work on the high trestle is finished.

The bents are 300mm (12") apart, so the overall whole length is about 3.9 M in length (13 Foot), the drop over the length is about 100mm (4").

I used 2 different methods to attach the bents to the road bed;
  • Originally I added a "Mud Sill" to the bent then attached that to the frame, but after a while it became obvious that it really was not a good method as I had to cut the bent legs to size as the height lowered, this I found time consuming with a high chance of errors there was also a high chance of splitting the sill when attaching to the frame.  
  • The second method allowed me to align the bents easier and the installation was a lot smoother with less chance for error as there was no measuring and cutting.
The next step is to build the roadbed that takes the track down to the lower level and put some wire mesh under the trestle to hold stones that will simulate a rocky creek bed/gully.


Trestle Full Length

Looking along Trestle Lengthwise
Right Hand End of Trestle showing grade
Trestle and Bridge
Original Bent Attachment Method
Second Bent Attachment Method

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14 January 2020

5. Stage 1-January 2020 G The High Trestle reaches Halfway

The high trestle has reached halfway round the corner.  The next step is to complete the supports all the way around to the next fence post leaving out the corner post the black "planter pot" will cover that. 
At present I am not sure whether to stop the trestle at the fence post or continue it along a little further.



Trestle at halfway point
 
Supports to be built across this section
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6 January 2020

4. Stage 1-January 2020 G Starting the High Trestle

To drop the upper level down to the same as the lower I decided to use a trestle bridge.

I spent some time over Christmas making the bents;
  • using 12mm garden stakes for the piles and top cap
  • some left over Merbau (an Australian Hardwood) for the braces 
 The braces were cut/ripped on my "Triton" table saw and the pile trimmed to length using a slide/drop saw.



Template of the bents
Jig used to form the bents
The garden stakes used for the bent piles

The garden stakes and Merbau plank

Decking timber cut for bracing

Decking timber cut for bracing

Bent assembly (without bracing timbers)
First Bent on railway (showing bracing timbers)

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