Laying out track and assembling the first trestle bents

Work continues on the PE&A as the weather allows. It has been raining continuously today so I decided to work on trestle bents in the garage. The rain has truly been incredible for this time of year which is normally the dry season. As of this afternoon it has rained 2.86 inches at our house since the start of June, which is more rain that we typically would expect to see in all of June through September combined. Some small streams in the region are at near or above flood stage right now.

In between showers there have been some dry periods so I've still been able to get outside. Yesterday was dry enough I was able to get the lawn mowed and do some other yard work before spending a little time on the layout.

I've been laying out track and moving it around to see what looks good. I like the idea of a spur along the rock wall here.

This junction will allow trains to switch between the inner loop and the outer loop. 

The inner loop will be mostly elevated above the outer loop. Here I'm building an incline to enable trains to transition between the two loops. 

Today I started cutting up a bunch of lumber so I can make trestle bents. These 1/2" cedar boards are leftover from the fence I built last year. They are about 18 inches long which is perfect for shorter trestle bents. I have some additional boards I'll use to make bents 24 inches and taller.

Using my table saw I turned the 1/2" boards in to a pile of 1/2" square posts and another pile of 1/4" strips to connect them. I then used my chop saw to cut the 1/4" strips to standard lengths.

At my workbench I'm using the same assembly process I used before as well as the jig I created a couple years ago. With premeasured pieces on hand the assembly goes quickly.

The first finished trestle bent! I assembled about two dozen today.

Lewis' Flax is blooming in my native plants garden

And to the west of the railroad the bearded iris are finally opening. Normally these would be bloomed out by the second week of June but everything is so late this year due to the cool and wet weather.