Trestle Bridge Completed

Today was the day for working on the big curved trestle bridge on the new garden railroad in our backyard.  I had no problem squeezing in and completing everything...  cutting wood, installing foundation blocks, assembling the bents, and then installing the bents.  

The only casualty is me!  My spinal injuries are killing me...  my knees are killing me...  every few feet, I buckle in pain.  I don't hit the floor but I drop about a foot and freeze for a few seconds in excruciating pain.  Hopefully this will pass quickly.

This morning, I started with installing the foundation blocks.  Honestly, this part of the install went far more quickly than I had anticipated.  Then again, I went at this very heavy handedly which wasn't my initial intention.  I completely removed a whole wheelbarrow-full of dirt and roots by the big shovelful.  Once I cleared the area under the track completely, I then installed the foundation blocks.  Once I had all the blocks where I needed them, I backfilled the area with clean dirt (no roots, debris).  Oddly enough, I still have a wheelbarrow-full of dirt!  

I think I had the foundation for the trestle bridge completed by 9:30am.  At this point, I had a pretty good idea that the whole bridge would be installed by the end of the day.

Each of these foundation blocks steps down lower away from the track above.  

After the foundation work, I then turned my attention to cutting wood and assembling each bent...

The finished wood trestle bridge is looking good!  The track is packed away in the house until I plan to run a train or two.  

To be honest, I was only concerned with the look of this bridge from this side of the track.  The inside of the curve will always have vegetation in the warmer months so I wasn't concerned with how that side of the bridge appears.  If the bridge looks unfinished in the winter months when there is no vegetation blocking our view, then maybe I'll add some details to the inside of this curve.  

I had a little extra time so I built a passenger platform for between the tracks.  I still need to paint it but this will be a nice addition.  (I just realized that I have no paint available in the color I need so finishing this platform will require some new paint.)

Fortunately, the rest of the locomotive parts that I had been waiting on had arrived today.  So, I can attempt to tackle installing all the locomotive electronics tomorrow....  assuming I'm feeling well enough anyway.  Right now, I'm feeling like I may need to sleep through tomorrow.  Time will tell.  I really want to get this locomotive running again though so I may push on through if my health allows.

I had been looking forward to getting the big trestle bridge completed and I have to say that it is looking great!