I like the idea of creating a looped elevated track out of basswood, that I would later stain. A sort of simplified trestle bridge, I’m not looking for anything intricate.
Since I’ve not done anything like this before I plan on only building the wooden spans/decks, nothing at scale/model-accuracy. Then for the support piers I’d use solid blocks of wood that I could replace with more intricate and harder to make trestle bents later on if I so choose.
See the attached images that I found from Joey Fauty on the forum for examples of what I was going for… as well as a basic mock-up
If I want to space the piers about 10”-12” apart (where the track will be ross track). Would having two parallel 1/2” x 1/2" x 12” beams with something like 3/16” or 1/4” cross planks be strong enough to support a ~10-15lb locomotive?
Are there things I should be considering when building the curved sections?
Also, are the cross planks a sufficient width at 4”? Should I have a wider deck? The ties are 2.13” long. 4" seemed good since most basswood sticks are divisible by 4, so no waste...
When it comes to adhering the wood is there a recommended type of glue to use with basswood for these sorts of projects? I saw titebond 3 recommended a fair bit when searching around…
