Brad, maybe try to make your own.  You might be surprised a how well you can do them.  Here is the pic of the ones I made.  I made a template so that all were basically the same.  I made over 60 of this style with each being a different in length.  This is very time consuming project.

Ken,

That's a very nice looking trestle. Did you have a source to use for plans or did you just "wing it?" I need to design a similar trestle, with a curve as yours has.

Thanks.

Bob

Brad,

I guess it depends on if you have the time to set aside. I viewed the link you posted and feel the price is fair for the amount of time that appears to be involved. I have never built a trestle before but plan on utilizing a 2 track curved trestle. Ken's trestle above is very nice. I don't know if I have the time right now to build one myself. Perhaps if I had a template for the bents and did not have to spend a lot of time setting things up I may choose to do it myself. I'd have to guess that I'd have just as much setup and prep time as I would in construction.

I always view it as what do I have more of right now - time or money? Usually time wins, but in this case if I can find a good price for what I need I think I'd buy one.

Matt

Free time is something I don't have a lot of: I own several small operating businesses so although my creative juices are flowing, I doubt I would ever get it done.    On Track seems to offer both a beautiful scale selection that can be customized and is affordable.    I am happy to pay a reasonable price for that level of craftsmanship as I would like to support someone's talent, time and expertise.

I wish more of the kits that are handmade were a little less (building wise); a few hundred is doable, but when it hits $1000 I get a little gassed at the price.     The Slayville sawmill comes to mind.

Bob, I originally bought a trestle kit off the internet which had plans that I followed when making my template.  It originally was a 5 timber trestle bent assembly.  I modified it for a 3 post trestle.  I purchased all my wood from National Balsa Co., it was quite a bit cheaper that the local hobby shops.  Trestles certainly add a nice look to a layout.

As I mentioned they are a very time consuming project.

Ken.

I could not make a trestle for what that guy is charging. Don't know how he does it, or why he would for that matter.

However, as Ken stated, trestles are not tough to build, and you can "wing it" pretty easily. It is one of the easier projects to build. I also disagree regarding the amount of time, as I found it was a quick project for the size of the job.

I started by determining the height and building one support, or "bent."

I placed the one finished unit on a flat board and nailed finishing nails into the board at the joints and guides to mirror the construction of the first. Once complete, I just cut more pieces to those lengths and built them in the jig. I used one quarter square lengths of wood I bought at Home Depot for $0.69 each and cut them by hand with a fine tooth saw to get a precise cut.

Once I had the prescribed number of bents, I placed them supporting the track and put weights on the track to hold them vertical.

All of the cross members I measured and cut "in place" and glued them to the standing bents until complete.

Not really a tough job and I finished in a few days. The nice thing about this job is you don't not have to set hours aside in blocks. You can work on it for ten, thirty or sixty minutes and just come back to it. 

Because the size of the project is big and impressive and there is almost no way to mess it up, you'll get a lot of satisfaction from doing it yourself. 

Bob Bartizek has a great tutorial on how he made the spectacular trestle on his Pennsylvania & Western Railroad (my favorite O-gauge railroad of all time):

http://www.pennwestrr.com/trest020310.html

-Pete

e gads man---that is beyond belief!

Yeah Pete that is an excellent article.  Bob's template was pretty much exactly how I made my trestles too.  I received the current OGR run 256 magazine yesterday and it too had an excellent article on building trestles.  Nice timing OGR staff.

Everyone have a nice day.

Ken

Scenic Express (an OGR sponsor) sells some great trestle bents.  Russ

http://www.sceneryexpress.com/products.asp?dept=1133

Building your own trestles is time consuming but very rewarding. Ken, your trestles are superb.

This trestle was built by a young teen.

Great work by the young fella---I would pay him for work like that!