New trestle.

Oh what should I do during the "Isolation"? A January 1986 issue of Model Railroader somehow keeps landing in my hands, by the way it cost $2.75. Floor to ceiling scenery and the spindly trestle, draws me  over and over to the Snake Head Trestle area on Mike Simon's Silverton & Telluride Ry. Co. layout which was designed by Malcolm Furlow, So I decided to bite the bullet and build my version of it.

Now who wouldn't want this as part of your layout? To set the record straight, I'm not building the scenery from the ceiling to the floor, my trestle is only 11 inches high, not 18 inches high, I left out the short truss bridge and I doubt my scenery will rival theirs.
Below is a picture of the area where the trestle will be installed with a cardboard template of the shape of the trestle. You will also note the scenery has not been removed yet. Yes I'm building the trestle first!

Using this template the stringers were glued and bent between rows of finishing nails. After drying for a day, ties were added between the nails. Once they dried the nails were pulled and ties were added to these areas.
The next step was to use an old code 83 flex track I had on hand. After removing most of the ties, only leaving 1 tie every 2 inches or so, it was taped down to conform to the radius of the trestle deck and the ties left on the track were adjusted in between the deck ties.

Even though the flex track ties keep the rails in gauge, track spiking gauges were also used. Below is a close up to show the gauge and remaining ties.

As can be seen the tracks were spiked down every 2 or 3 ties. The code 70 guard rails were added next. Once everything was checked the flex track ties were removed. As a note the flex track ties are half as thick as the trestle ties, allowing them to be pushed down and slid out from under the rails.
Trestle bents and bracing were built and added to the deck.

Completed trestle sitting on another part of my layout. Stay tuned for the rest of the story.