Trestle work update

Not sure what happened with updates to this blog. Work on the PE&A has not progressed as quickly as I was hoping this summer due to competing priorities, but that doesn't mean nothing has happened at all. Time to provide some updates on progress over the past few months.

My main priority was to complete the curving trestle which is the first thing a visitor to the railroad would see. I was not completely happy with the work I did in the spring and I ripped out a few pieces that I didn't think looked right. The key challenge was coming up with a design to go over the rocks I had arranged here.

I repositioned the trestles on the east approach (to the left) and decided to use two short double bents to cross the rocks. I had to make a couple some adjustments to the rocks to provide an adequate surface.

This is the result, with the two short bents evenly spaced, then a large gap to the right.

Next step was to glue on supporting cross beams.

Meanwhile, I needed to finish the west approach. I had partially built this in the spring but then ran out of pre-made bents.

To transition from the west end of the trestle back to ground level I decided to use cribbing filled with crushed rock. I reused a structure I had from my old railroad and modified it to fit the space.

This shows the finished approach. I don't have ballast on the track yet as I need to extend the track before I decide on the final alignment.

This picture shows the east approach to the trestle and an industry spur to the left. I started placing ballast here once I was happy with the track alignment.

I needed a small retaining wall as the industry spur is along a slope. Nothing fancy here.

Here the wall is in place and tracks have ballast. The spur is slightly below the level of the main track so any cars spotted here won't accidentally roll back and foul the main.

Next thing I'm working on is defining the route the track will take from the main line (lower loop) to the upper loop. The main line is on the left hand side and is already partially ballasted.

This is another view of the current work area showing the slope to the upper level.

With the arrival of the fall rains some of the native plants in my garden have had a new set of blooms like this sticky geranium (Geranium viscosissimum)

Blanket flower (Gaillardia aristata)