I put some of these phots in my layout building progress but I think it would be better served if they had their own spot. So I’ll repost some pictures and then add some more.
I started by cutting up some old redwood I got from my father who rebuilt his deck. Free old growth redwood is priceless in my book. I think I lucked out. This picture shows the trestle bents cut to proper dimensions and length.
This is a jig I built to make my bents. I used a piece of 3/4" plywood and then placed blocks in the proper places. It made making the bents very easy. With my air brad nailer and glue I was able to build 25 bents in about 1 full days work (it took a couple of weekends because I spent 2-3 hours at a time).
This shows some of my bents in the general area they will go. I have yet to remove the PVC ladder roadbed that I put in temporarily.
This is one my longer bents I built and the place it will go, once the ladder is removed. It stands 33" tall. If you notice in this picture and the previous ones, I used concrete as the base for the bents. These are just concrete pavers. If I remember correctly they are 12" x 3" x 2". They provide a solid base for the bents to sit on and keep the wood out of the dirt.
This is a picture of some of the bents and part of the sill in place. I had a hard time with keeping the sill bent and keeping the bents in place. I tried putting saw cuts in one side of the sill so it would bend easier, It worked some but left more surface area for the wood to rot. I then clamped the sill to a jig with the proper bend and wet it then let it dry clamped to the jig. That worked but it took too long. I finally just used concrete screws and screwed the bents to the concrete footings. This also made the bridge more stable.
