I’m planning my future layout and would love to include some interesting elements to it,one being a wooden trestle bridge which I find particularly attractive.However,even if I occasionally run a few steamers,the bulk of my roster are modern diesels.Being my layout,I can indeed run anything I wi***o whatever the scenery but still,I’m curious.
Are there any wooden trestles still in service or have they all been torn down to be replaced by more modern structures?Considering there probably isn’t any still used,are there any still standing up and preserved as a historic structure?When did steel trestles start replacing this type of construction?
I’ve seen pictures of wooden trestles,some being very impressive,but never seen any that featured double tracks.Were there any built?
I am in Queensland, Australia and we definately have some wooden trestles still in service on the mainline even with electrified high speed passenger trains going over them (QR’s electric and diesel Tilt trains). Most of them have admittedly been reinforced with concrete piers in between the original timber piles.
There is a wooden trestle still in use in the historic section of Harper’s Ferry W.Va.
It’s on a spur that runs down between the town and the Shennandoah river to a quarry.
I have a slide of it from a few years ago when one of the bents was being replaced – the new bent propped against the side of the trestle. Incidently, this trestle is over dry land.
Most of the big trestles that are left are not in use for trains anymore, though a couple are used as walking pathes. Sadly though, most are gone. The low pile trestle is another story though. They are scattered everywhere, but aren’t the most popular. I don’t know of any new ones being built in the last 20 or 30 years, just maintaining the old ones.
This is one that is abandoned obviously, buy this is the type you see more often nowadays (this size or lower);
Now to give you an idea, this is probably about 12 to 14 feet tall.
This one is just around the corner from my house and is pretty typical of the type still in use, although in a bit better condition.
Out here in central California, contemporary wooden trestles are usually of two general types. (1) Sturdy, short (both height and length) types over small gulches, so they are really just “open” culverts. (2) On secondary lines, short trestles leading up to steel truss bridges crossing small rivers where there are gentle slopes or flood plains on the sides of the river. The only tall wooded trestle I saw here was on a narrow-gauge tourist line, but that burned down some years ago.
Wooden trestles are still found in spots in Sacramento, where frequent flooding means that large stretches of track have to be elevated to avoid inundation. Some have been replaced with steel and concrete trestles, but other bits are still wooden. Many are like the kind markpierce mentions above. One exception is the Woodland Branch, several miles of short (10-15 foot) wooden trestle from Woodland to the Sacramento River. The area floods every year, and has been in operation since around 1910 when the Northern Electric first ran passengers from Sacramento to Woodland. Until recently it was operated by the Yolo Short Line, the latest owner is the Sierra Railroad. A scenic line is operated over the trestle but it also carries commercial freight.
In Davenport, Iowa there is an incredibly beautiful wood stucture that includes a trestle over the main road that paralells the river. it was probably a former Rock Island line, and I have seen in recent years UP, BN, and CP on it. This comes up from just above river level to probably 50 feet. Just a truly gorgeous structure. I intend to include something similar in my future layout.
CSX still has numerous timber trestles on heavy tonnage mainlines, including at least 4 on the Spartanburg Sub between Spartanburg and Greenwood, SC. Also, NS has a trestle at King’s Creek that I believe is the highest timber trestle east of the Miss. It now serves an industry on the stub end of a branch line.
I can vouch for the wooden trestle across the Sacramento River flood plain. There is a local road that parallel’s it across the plain (which is closed when flooded, access available off parallel I-5). I guess the ‘why’ of the existance of this 2-mile structure has been answered above. Any where else in California, especially Southern Cailf., anything more than twenty years old is out of code, illegal, or otherwise doomed for replacement. It’s th price of business in Calitigationia.
Just last month, a 700-foot long single-track wooden trestle near Yuma, Arizona, that had been built in the latter part of the 1800s caught fire and closed the Union Pacific Sunset Route for several days while a shoo-fly was installed. The UP then poured a new double-track concrete trestle to replace the burned-out one. There are still many wooden trestles in use in Arizona on the UP Sunset Route that they inherited from the Southern Pacific.
Here in Milwaukee there is a wooden trestle about 500’ to 700’ long to bring the interchange track from CP’s mainline down from a bridge crossing over KK ave. to the surrounding grade to Jone’s Island and the ports. I just saw some MOW activity on it today.
There is at least two on the Santa Cruz branch of the old SP (now operated by the Borg) in cental Calif.
40’ to 50’ tall and 2 to 3 times as long, or longer.
There is a beauty of a wooden trestle in Arkansas. It is located just south of the town of Glenwood. I know it is still in use by the shortline rr that serves the lumber mill and the particle plant just north of Glenwood. I plan to have this trestle on my layout since this is the area of Arkansas I am modeling.
There is a beauty of a wooden trestle in Arkansas. It is located just south of the town of Glenwood. I know it is still in use by the shortline rr that serves the lumber mill and the particle plant just north of Glenwood. I plan to have this trestle on my layout since this is the area of Arkansas I am modeling.
There is a terrific, tall, long woden trestle in Bellevue, WA that is adjacent to I-405. You can’t miss seeing it if you are among the 10s of thousands of commuters who drive by it daily.
Adding on to dtrampeneau’s post, here’s a link to the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train’s web site, which rolls across the Wilburton Trestle in Bellevue, WA. If you take the tour, there’s a pretty cool shot of the train rolling across the trestle. I’ve been across it at the restricted speed of 10 m.p.h.
Currently, this is an active BNSF branch that sees a few trains a day (mostly Boeing-generated traffic), and the Dinner Train uses it in the evening and on weekends. BNSF is talking to King County about selling it, though, and its future is a little uncertain.
ther is a fairly high trestle bridge on the BNsf near princeton il, it can be seen from Inter state 80 just west of princeton on the south side of the interstate
There are still many wooden railroad trestles around and contractors that repair them (and at times build new). Osmose is one that advertises a lot. Check out: http://www.osmose.com/railroad/. Contact them and they may be able to give you a lot of great info.
