Fastrack on wood trestle?

Garrett,

I believe most trestles secured the rails to the wood cross members and did not have any gravel roadbed.  However, here is a picture of one with a roadbed similar to FastTrack's.  So you could use it and be prototypical.

Garrett - You might want to try Gargraves 5 rail tresle track.  It's available in tinplate or stainless.

Bob

http://www.gargraves.com/files/Web-101-trestle.gif

Thanks.  I'm not familiar with 5 rail track.  What is the purpose of the additional rails- appearance, or some sort of safety feature to prevent a plunge into the ravine below?

Ron's photo above is what I've heard referred to as a "ballasted deck bridge". Don't know why those were done that way, but I've seen one out here in California on the old ATSF Lake Elsinore branch. If you set up a wood trestle with side beams and boards across the stringers, FasTrack placed on top of that (within the side beams, of course) would look like a ballasted deck bridge. The one still standing on the Lake Elsinore branch was about 40' long spanning a wash.

Exactly.  Most 1:1 scale tracks have 4 rails on trestles and bridges so that in case of derailment, the cars don't go over the edge or hit the thru truss.

I was going to suggest Gargraves or ross track on the bridge sections but I have never seen the five rail track Bob posted. I like these a lot and think they would would great on the bridge sections.

I believe you will need to adjust the height of the bridges so the Gargraves track line up with the Fastrack. I am not sure how to connect Gargraves to Fastrack but it is not really necessary as long as you connect power/ground to the Fastrack in front and behind the bridge and to the Gargraves track in the middle.

Joe

This is from the Gargraves FAQ page: To transition from Fast Track to GarGraves: Use Lionel item no. 6-12040 and GarGraves O Gauge Mating pins item # 801.

Ron,

   That is a way cool picture of the old mountain type bridge, with the old time road bedding that matches the FasTrack, thanks for posting it.

PCRR/Dave

There were quite a lot of bridges done like CAppilot's photo pictured, enough you can use Fastrack on wooden trestles and be prototypical.  It is easier although Fastrack across a bridge tends to be particularly noisy.

"Ron's photo above is what I've heard referred to as a "ballasted deck bridge". Don't know why those were done that way, but I've seen one out here in California on the old ATSF Lake Elsinore branch"

   Hi Matt, The reason ballasted deck bridges are popular is that they make it easier to reballast the route and blend the new ballast into the bridge track. If the rails are spiked to the bridge then it's harder  to match them to a new layer of ballast.....DaveB

Yes, as the other guys showed, ballasted deck trestles are out there. It's possible that with Fastrack's sounding-board qualities you might have to take some soundproofing material and, um, actually ballast your trestle