Well Cliff, it is all true, I know for a fact because I made most of it up myself 
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Those are the best true stories, Rick. Cuz when everyone’s heard em, they realize they were mostly true.
till about the age of twenty-four, i lived in a house built in 1906, with lead-pipes.
the only consequence was, that the lead settled in my bottom. so it became harder and harder to stand up for work. (even before i reached 50)
Korm, that’s cute.
Mom used to refer to me as her little mineral boy, rocks in my head and lead in my -ss.
I used to do a lot of mine hunting / exploring when I was a teenager. If I’d told my mom about half the dangerous stuff I did, she’d have killed me. 
The two straight trestles are oiled up and have their shoes on, ready for action.
Here’s the locale with the two “temporary” (but like 10 years old) plywood bridges…
…and without.
I hope to get these installed before mid-August, because of a bunch of travel looming after that, we’ll see.
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Whats the problem. There’s still 4 hours of day light
So that’s how they say it these days? Well ok then I’m ready for the show!
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I’m starting to set up for the big trestle. This is the assembly jig, which is bigger than my work table, so I made a quick extension to it.
Here’s all the templates & jigs for this project.
You keep this stuff up and you’ll need BD to open an etsy section for you custom built bridge support forms sideline hustle. 
My starting point this morning:
I began with scooping up all the ground cover and parking it near a few temporary sprinkler heads. Also re-routed some sprinkler trunk lines to clear the bents better.
The excavation went well, with the objective being to take the soil down to at least an inch below the bent founfations.
To keep this little valley from becoming a lake, I lowered some of the retaining wall. I plan to start a path of stepping stones here, going halfway up the valley and across the layout to the patio. Here’s the completed excavation.
Last thing was a start on the concrete, but I had only 1 bag on hand. I was wanting to verify that it would work fine without any forms, just hand-molding.
I just got back from getting more concrete, so I’m set for doing the rest of that tomorrow.
Cheers!
Ohhhhh, it’s getting good now! I’m excited to see what comes next.
Looking close, How’s that plan working out for ya?
So far, so good for the theory, Hollywood. Reality’s a B-word though…
JSYK, the printed footers stay with the concrete. I’m trying to embed them some. Once the cable ties are clipped, the woodwork should come away ok.
We’ll see when I take the trestles out for the trackwork, and then put them back in. I do have a belt sander though. And a Sawzall. 
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The concrete work is done, and the trestles are officially planted.
Sprinkler lines are cobbed back together, and it looks like the trees will have survived the effort.
For the record, on the longer trestle, I don’t know why I didn’t extend the main timbers and ties into these voids.
I suspect their ending point, and the position of last bent, were originally that amount to the left (and opposite, on the other end). Maybe in standardizing the bent spacing, and the brace sub-assemblies, things got shorter. If so… I blame it on the CAD! Or CAD operator…
Can’t remember; don’t know now. Anyway I’ll need to fill those gaps with something, probably more concrete or mortar (groan), to support the normal ties & track here.
This is why you should listen to your elders and have gone with Mr. Marty’s CAD designs as they work in the field.
Cool !
So how soon after the line opens and they are operational do we have till a nitroglycerin accident and we can blow them up?
After re-setting the track and cutting it, I pulled the trestles out. All seemed ok.
Next is some spiking. Rooster, I’ll finally be able to use the ones you sent me, thanks.
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Well I’m glad you got to use the spikes cause I don’t even remember giving you spikes?
This old age stuff is catching up to me.
OH, and BTW that’s not a trestle either. It’s nothing more than wooden piers set on top of concrete.