Some braces installed

The trestle has been setup on a sort of foundation, so the braces can be installed. A few of them are in place on the model. And some equipment are testing the trestle.

 

All bents mounted on trackbed, upside down

Tonight all the 30(not 29 as earlier sayd) bents have been glued to the underside of the trackbed. I did the job upside down, the trackbed was put on the table over a 1:1 drawing of the bridge. Here I had indicated he positions for all bents and also the height of each bent. Also the deck brigde is installed.

The next step will be to turn the whole bridge around and start to mount the vertical braces. I guess I also need to look at the fundation for the whole trestle. Today is thursday, so the next work will be done after the weekend, in the next week, after some travelling.

 

Lower level finished, track installed, first run

The lower level of the module is now finished and all the track have been installed.

The first ever run on this new module was done tonight. Not a complete round because the tracks in the yard are not connected to power yet, but the front part has been tested.

All visible parts have got MTL track, hidden part have got some Märklin track and some Peco flextrack. I could have used MTL all over, but I have plenty of the other track and try to use Märklin and Peco in hidden areas.

  

Check out video:

 

Deck Bridge finished

Tonight the small Deck Bridge on the trestle is very near completion.

Now all the different part for the trestle is produced, and one of the next step will be to build the frame for the modul.

All 29 bents finished

Now all the 29 bents are finally finished. I needed to wait for an order of Kappler Lumber and the missing lumber arrived yesterday from US. 

For this trestle I need 11 different heights on the bents, in addition to the girder bridge that will cross The Silver Creek Railroad and Silver Creek.

The next step will be to create the girder bridge. The 2 beams are ready.

Trackbed and track in place

Now all the trackbed sections and the track is finished and its rotated 180 degrees and a mirrored drawing is placed on the table as a type of jig. The stringers under the trackbed are glued in position.
Near all of the 29 bents are close to finish. I need some more Northeastern Scale Lumber to finish the work.

Each section of the deck bridge have 3 layers of lasercut wood glued together.

For the coloring of the wood I have used Testor FLOQUIL railtie colors. Very easy to use and I think it give a good result with the color.

Track ready for trackbed

A 1:1 drawing is laid out on the table so the track can be glued to the trackbed section. Between each section I do not remove one tie. That give the track the correct gauge.

The trestle will have 29 bents with different height and a deck bridge to cross the river and the lower track on the module.

Roadbed sections and bents ready

I am lucky to know torsja and he has access to a laser at work. That gives some nice possibilities and I selected to build a new big trestle using a combination of lasercut wood and Northeastern Scale Lumber to build this new bridge.
The road bed is cut in sections and all the bents are cut in different heights.

The track ties are removed, expect for one tie for every trackbed section. Both tracks are glued to the bed and the remaining plastic ties will give the correct gauge on the track.

 

Plans for a new Zmod Trestle Module

Some years with no action. No modelling in 2007, 2008 and 2009. But now, in 2010, I'm back in the hobby again and have started the planning of a new layout.
But only after some weeks with thinking I changed my plans again.

Now I will build a new Zmod section!! I guess I should have finished the module described below first, but I want a new module with a big bridge and some nice trees. :-)

 

The new module will be 120cm long and 40 cm wide(+ a few cm on the inside to hold some track). In general the 2 mainline tracks will be divided with some mountains and some tunnels. One track will have a big wood trestle and a river valley with some lowe level track and a bridge. This lowe level will be a separate track, where to trains can meet and run when the maintrack is connected to some other modules.

The other maintrack will have some tunnels and a smaller bridge, I guess. But, there can be changes. You never know.

Above you can see a 3rdPlanit image of the layout.