I've got a pretty good system for building a trestle from quarter inch square material readily available at Home Depot. I can grab hold of it and pull myself off the floor and it will support my weight (178 lbs). You can build a sixty inch span in a couple of sessions held together with wood glue.

What type of track are you using?

Is it straight or curved?

Send me an email if you want photos.

publisher@ogaugehobbyist.com

I built a long curved trestle out of poplar wood and used Elmer's Carpenter's Glue (the yellow stuff) to hold it together.  Like Harry's trestle, you could sit on it.  Construction info and lots of photos are on my website linked below.  Click on "Photos" on the menu list at the left of the screen then click on "Building Summit Trestle."

That's a mighty fine pictorial on trestle building, Mr. Bob.  I understand about the veneer blade, but what size table saw did you rip that wood on?

Pete

Bob:

Very impressive trestle.

You built yours almost exactly the way we built ours. We built "one-piece" stringers by laminating wood strips together in a jig we made to match the curved track's rails. We also made a jig for the bents. We used tapered shims to shim the bents up from their bases to level with the stringers and the stringers were drilled, pinned and glued to the bents. The bent bases were encased in "concrete" when the scenery was done.

Thanks for all the great responses guys! Im using mth realtrax but will likely adapt to another track system on the trestle to eliminate that " floating ballast" effect, maybe some of my old tubular track  with wooden ties added. Il hopefully start this project this weekend, Ill have pics up. Looking forward to participating in the Sunday Scenery Showcase very soon.

You might want to try Atlas track for the trestle since you're using MTH RealTrax. The rail size on both is almost identical. You'd have to cut about 1/4" off the end of the RealTrax roadbed and use Atlas track joiners to connect the two. That could also help you set up the right height for the stringers which should extend past the ends of the trestle so you can cover them with ballast to hide the joints. Just a thought.

Bob

Great trestle!

SaabsandTrains

I'll second Matt's suggestion to consider another type of track for the trestle.  Atlas or Gargraves could work.  If you are coming from HO and have a spiking pliers you could also consider using O gauge rail to hand lay the track on the bridge deck.  That way you could get the tight tie spacing seen on bridges.

Another option to consider if time is a factor is to use pre-fabricated trestle bents from Grand Central Gems.  They make nice stuff. 

http://www.grandcentralgems.co...del-train-bridge.cfm