And proud of it!!
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He must be growing his timber for this project … 
That actually sounds like a good idea…
Current excuse is that we just got back from our NV/CA vacation last night, and am now back in the saddle at work.
I finished the wood ripping last weekend, here’s the pile for both the curved trestle and the two short straight ones.
And I actually got to some model making today! Well, if cutting timbers for bents counts, haha!
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Been assembling some bents today. These are for the two short trestles.
The design is more or less per the prototype, which didn’t use X-braces across the vertical timbers, and relied only on the outboard diagonals for bracing. I suppose that’s because the bents were so short.
Progress … what next …
This weekend I finished the cutting and pre-assembly for the two straight trestles.
One trestle has an oddball cordwood dump, and that’s what the 3 weird add-on bents in the center are, along with the planked ramp to their right.
Looks like I’ll have to pause on this again for a couple weeks. Business travel all next week, then out to CA the following week for family matters.
Cheers,
Cliff
I cannot even begin to calculate how many not-so-straight strips of wood I would have created in cutting these components were this my project!
Safe travels! I look forward to watching this come together when you get back!
Eric
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Sorry for the tardy reply Eric, and thanks for the commiseration and nice wishes.
My secret to wood cutting and fitting: assemble stuff, then belt-sand flush and don’t blow the dust off before taking any photos. 
Thanks for your travelogues. Mine is work-related this week, so I can’t say anything about it. 
Next week is back out to California for my Mom’s funeral, and related activities, so not happy travel. 
Then travel to Orlando the following week for more frantic work stuff. 
I truly want to get at the trestle work, but I have to be home to do it…
Not trying to ask anyone to break out the violins, but that’s my situation. So my sincere thanks to anyone patient enough to follow this build thread.
Oh I don’t know…Didn’t Rod Steward bring his modeling projects with him on the road … 
Rod used to book a second hotel room for his projects - not all of us can afford that!
We got back home from CA yesterday morning, and after a bit of sleep and taking care of house stuff I did the next steps on the trestle. Namely designing and printing the “iron” parts for the thru-trusses, and also printing a drill jig.
I needed something to guide a long 1/16" bit along a very shallow angle. This is for some tension rods through each truss frame. I resin-printed the jig, and the guide hole was fairly true. After drilling the jig out I clamped it to the truss frame:
Then drilled the beam, and checked it with the rod that’ll go through the hole. Seemed to be ok. Here it is with most of the filament-printed “irons.”
Not great resolution, but it’s a trestle and 10’ rule. These are using ASA filament. Here’s how it’s supposed to more or less look like.
In Orlando this week, through Saturday.
Might get to the trestle work Sunday?
Not sure.
The work project has required me to stay in Orlando thru Monday… And maybe Youngstown OH next week, don’t know…
So no trestle progress this weekend… But I’m looking forward to it!! 
What was that project again? Hmm…
What was that project again? Hmm…
Devoning … you might be in the masters class…
Maybe I’ll have a shot at the trestle decks this weekend. But only after the accumulating yard work, and whatever house work.
Cliff
The rain let me off the yard work, yay! So at long last, here’s some progress on the two shorter straight trestles.
I started yesterday with building the decks, using a little jig for spacing the ties.
This morning I started on the truss subassemblies, using a couple more simple jigs from scrap plywood.
Here’s a finished truss bridge subassembly.
Then I put together the cordwood ramp (just below the trusses):
That’s pretty much all the subassembly I can do, and painting needs to come next. In their earlier years, the V&T painted painted pretty much everything wooden with barn-red “fireproof” paint, and their bridges were no exception. Our deck happens to be that color, so I had some to use on this.
Lots more painting to do.
I want to spike the rail to the decks before installing the (uneven) bents. So I’m trying to get a few (nickle-plated brass) rails from Train Li, to match everything else I have, but they prob won’t break a box. I might have to try stainless instead… maybe used stuff on Ebay, not sure.
Cliff
Finished the painting today, and made some assembly props for the shorter bents. Here’s roughly how the main bits go together.
There are detail parts to be added to the trusses, black wash for the ties, light weathering in general, rail spiking, and then final assembly with the braces.
Cliff
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The Busch Light is the wife’s and your drinking the Raid correct?
Nope, both mine. I take it you’ve not heard of the BuschBomb? Kinda like the Jägerbomb but sprayed with Raid and lit with a match. Takes care of the flies and distracts one from all other concerns.