June 17, 2018. Although the trestle still looked pretty good, it required a lot of mainteance.

The problem is that I hand spiked the rail to the ties and EVERY year I have to re-seat the spikes. I just finished putting on a coat of boiled linseed oil on it, to help preserve the wood (cedar), but noticed that the trestle bents are rotting away.

It IS a cool looking trestle, but I want something that doesn't require as much maintenance.

June 18. The first step is to see how straight it is. I put a pressure treated 2 x 6 on top to see how long the viaduct should be.
I decided on 7' for the length of the viaduct; I'll have an arch cut every foot - so there will be 7 arches total, each half of a 10" diameter circle, with 2" pillars in between each arch.

I will use the 2x6 as a platform to lay the track on - just flex track in this case. I'm hoping I can find some AMS tie strips somewhere, so I can use the existing rails.

I am making the sides out of 3/8" Sintec (foamed PVC sheet). They will be 7" high, so I need to cut them to size first. The PVC is 24" x 48" long.

I clamp the 2x6 to the PVC to make a guide for the saw and pretty soon I have 4 pieces ready to go.

Eventually, I'd like to use my 2X8 pieces for the curved section to simulate a ballasted through-type plate girder bridge.

The pieces actually come out fairly even...

I'm trying to figure out if this will look OK, but I don't have a compass that will draw a 10" semicircle for the arches.

But, wait, I DO have a 3D printer!

Off to Tinkercad...eh, I can't figure how to make this stupid thing...so off to Thingiverse to see if anybody else has done something similar. Sure enough, I found something meant for "Templates for Cupcake Queen Paper Cup Press", whatever THAT is, but it looks like it could work for me!

So, I loaded the .STL file and scale it to 5" radius, and 3 MM thickness. Now I have a pattern I can use...
OK, it's only 1/4 of a circle, but easy enough to complete the arch.

Basically, you're looking at a 7" high side - from the inside. I'll have some feet in between each arch, and the 7 foot long 2x6 piece will run along the top - with a 3/8" high "wall". I'm just using one of the feet temporarily as the roadbed to see how everything will fit. I will also cover the bottom of the feet, just so not too much moisture gets into the wood.

June 23. Time to get cutting those arches...I use a saw guide to help - that's a test arch lying to the right...(I had to learn to use the guide first.)

June 23. Once again, the pieces are pretty darn close to each other, so that's a good sign...I hope.

Pretty soon I've cut two sides.

Once everything is cut, it's time for the "feet". These will be spacers that the 2x6 will rest on. They are glued and screwed in place. (Although here they are just sitting around waiting for something to happen.)

Soon the first section is complete - wll at least as far as the "feet/spacers" go.

I'm using the 2x6 to help keep things straight while I put the two sections together.

Currently that 2x6 is just keeping it straight and is not yet attached to anything.

Here's a shot without the 2x6...

June 24. My initial thought was to bend some 3mm thick sheet to line the inside of the arch, but that doesn't seem to be working as I had imagined.

On the plus side, this would form a very nice interior shape for the arch and look good. Problems would be getting it to the correct shape and also probably causing some issues with ventilation. Although I COULD put some vents in it.

On the negative side, it wouldn't look as nice.

Right now, you can see the treated lumber...if you look closely. But, remember, this WILL be painted. (I probably do NOT need to make a liner!)

I still plan to put some PVC "feet" under each base, but I wonder if it's really necessary, or even noticeable, to "line" the arches????

June 25. Meanwhile, in the "I sure hope this really fits" category, I tried my pieces of trimmed 2x8 on top of the existing trestle.

It looks good.

June 30. Next up is to start on the through girder pieces. The 2x8 has been trimmed to the curve and I screw some 3/8" inch pvc to the side. The pvc is 3" high.

I painted the first coat on the viaduct itself. I'm sure it will look even better with two coats.

Earlier, I found some rosettes on Thingiverse; scaled them down and then printed a bunch out. Glued them in place between the arches.

July 4. The PVC is screwed to the 2x6 and the holes are filled with Bondo. The through girders have 1/4" angle pieces glued horizontally on each side.

Later, I put some "T" pieces in between...

I've been using some Acrylic cement for this - nothing else seems to stay in place. And, I'm using escutcheon pins to help hold the angle in place while the glue sets up.

July 6. I started removing the old trestle, and got a much better view of the rot.

This rot has prevented me from leveling the trestle side to side, as part of my annual mainteance.

July 7. Part of the installation process is removing all of the old trestle pieces.

I use a pick to clear the area for the viaduct and put down some stone dust to help hold it in place and provide some drainage - just so the wood is never tempted to rot.

The track is just laid temporarily in place to see how it's going to look. The near through girder just has a coat of primer on it - I just finished the angle pieces on it yesterday.

I'm thinking this is going to look pretty good.

July 7. A shot from town...

July 9. I screwed the through girder pieces to the ends of the viaduct and covered them with rolled roofing material; held in place with "Wet Patch"

July 9. It looks better with the track in place.

July 9. Work is complete.