I am looking for basic plans for a trestle and the bents. I know I have seen them around but don’t have a clue anymore. I thought a supplier of western red cedar had them on their web site but they are not there. Can anyone give me suggestions?
thanks
Try www.gardentexture.com. You can buy plans and/or plans and parts
You might want to try www.4largescale.com and click Dean’s web page go to How To and scroll down to denver and rio grande trestle. I hope this is of help
Dean’s Web Site’s link to trestles really was a big help. Thanks for the link. I found it helped with a few problems I have with my next project. Initially it called for a huge fill, as I did not think that I could hope to build a real rail trestle that could easily be over 100 feet long and up to thirty feet high. I’ll have to check this out some more. I might be building myself a trestle. Hope it turns out nice enough to show pictures here.
Dean’s website was great!
I never thought to look in Kalmbach book titles.
I guess I have a start.
Thanks all.
Any other thoughts welcome.
The’re not that hard to build ,just rep work!
I used cedar on mine!
Hint: if you go to a fence co. thay usually have a scrap pile for free!!
Just cut it up and use some outdoor glue and nails.
I then put each bent into a bucket with presueve in it .
Im Sorta new to garden RR’s still buliding my first loop, but my track plan needs 2{ 10’ by ‘1 to 1 1/2’} curved tressles.
I have garden textures booked marked on my page, but since i am only a young teen money comes very slowly. garden textures is still a bit too pricie for me.
I want to build my own tresssles, but i don’t have a clew on what shape to build to bents. i would like a tressle like smcgill. very nice!!! ps. i know about gardentextures plans.
Chompers,
You might want to try Home Depot. They have redwood planting stakes in 1/2" x 1/2" and 3/4" x 3/4". A small miter saw, some brads and glue are all you’ll need to get started. You can get more sophisticated as funds permit. Start with small trestles to gain experience. Good luck!
When we landscape for climbing roses or other climbing things we go get the red wood trellis {sp} at a home supply store and those could work.
BUT the staples would have to be taken out and replaced.
Then you would have the same cut per trellis.
Just cut it to how high you need it.
Hope this helps…
I just finished building 2 2’ tall, 1’ high trestles out of screening and 1/2X3/4 pine strips. After assembly and a waterproof stain, the price came out to $5 a bridge. All materials were purchased at the Home Depot, although the 1/2x11/16 strips at lowes look slightly better (smaller) I might get the suplies for my next trestle there… hmmmm…
Spending hours on line staring at trestle pictures really helped. lol
Just to note, I live like 5 minutes from the guy who owns/runs Garden Texture. I think I might go to school with his daughters too… Anyway, his stuff is kinda pricy even without shipping.[;)]
Just to note, I live like 5 minutes from the guy who owns/runs Garden Texture. I think I might go to school with his daughters too… Anyway, his stuff is kinda pricy even without shipping.[;)]
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If your a student with his daughter’s Date one of them[:D] maybe you’ll get a discount.
[:-^]
Errrrrr…ummmmm…I don’t think so.
Fathers day brought a 10" saw ($99)
Cut your own wood (1/2 X1/2)
With the saw you can cut almost anything yuo’ll need on the layout.
I made 100 one-foot tall trestle bents out of cedar fence pickets and redwood bender board purchased from Home Depot and Sutherland’s. I ripped the fence pickets into square poles for the uprights, and used the redwood for the cross-bracing and top and bottom beams. I drew a pattern on a piece of plywood and used yellow wood glue and an air gun with 1" brad nails. Once all the wood was cut and coated with polyurethane, it took only about four hours to assemble all of the bents. As each bent is put into position, horizontal bracing cut out of redwood bender board strips is glued and tacked into position with the air gun, and four horizontal cedar strips are glued and tacked to the top of the poles. I photographed an old, abandoned Santa Fe trestle on Fort Huachuca to get the pattern. My trestlework looks a lot like the photo submitted by smcgill, above.
Just posted a topic under the general section asking about Brad guns then was reading through this thread and saw your post. Would you tell me what make of air gun you are using and what size brads, guage and length, you can use with it. Thanks.
Pat
Pat unless your planning on doing alot of nailing i would suggest using a inexpensive one $75.00 to $100.00 that shoots 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inch brads and make sure the readily available ones are galvinized. i myself use Senco products which can now be found at the Home Depot as well as various lenghts of pins. my gun an SLP120 retails there for I think $ 189.00 or so which is a far cry cheaper than what I paid for it!
Matt - Thanks for the post about the Senco SLP120 brad gun. I’m going by Home Depot in OnAlaska today so I’ll stop in and take a look. After doing some surfing on the net last night I found myself being drawn to the Senco line and their 18 guage model FP25XP which takes 5/8 to 2 1/8 brads. I’ll check out both models. Thanks again.
Pat
Pat, I’m not familar with that model but Senco stands behind their product and online customer service was very good! My question got answered within the same day! Rebuild kits are also available from various tool dealers.
I’ve Got my Bridges.
Now How would i mount them in the ground???
I have Bridge Masters Trestles and a Gardentexturse 3 foot long bridge.
We are building a trestle that will be lterally 15’ long and 1-2.5 feet high. We found basic specs for an actual 60’ high trestle on the D&RG line and sketches of how each section was built. We are making it out of PVC trim (the bent ‘lumber will be 3/4" x 3/4" which is fairly close to the 12’ x 12’ timbers they used). Once they are built we will score and paint them to look like real weathered lumber. Big job since we will make one every 2 feet of the span plus the ends. In our area I wouldn’t use wood…too many carpenter ants and bees. Thsi stuff will never rot or be bothered by insects…virtually maintenance free (thank goodness[8D]