Curved Pile Trestle--Part 3

Trial fit of the trestle in place.

The trestle is now complete other than attaching the track and ballasting.

Which bent has castings?

At the last trestle post, I left off with the next part being the "fiddly bit" of placing NBW castings in the bent sway braces. I spent hours doing just one bent. So frustrating. The NBWs would spring out of the tweezers, never to be found. The post had to be just the right length or it wouldn't find the hole or fit in the hole I had drilled for it. The tiny bit of CA would transfer itself to my finger or the tweezer--anywhere but stay on the post that was supposed to slide into the hole. All in all, so tiny and super frustrating. A complete gumption trap. Weeks later I ended up just drawing the nut/washer combinations with a Pigma Micron 05 pen on all the rest of the bents in about a quarter of the time I spent on the one with castings. Once I had weathered the bents with Bragdon "Medium Rust" and "Soot" weathering powders, it was difficult to spot the difference between the actual castings and the drawn ones.

Glueing the bents in place was easy since the location was obvious based on only having the deck planks at the bent locations. The only tricky part was keeping track of which bent went where. I was working upside down and other than the two central bents, each one was a slightly different height.

Only two more sections to go!

With the bents in place and after testing the trestle in place, it was back to the workbench. Glueing the rest of the deck planks was not that difficult or even that tedious. I just filled in the gaps between the few that were already in place over the bents. To allow for the curve I needed to split an occasional plank from corner to opposite corner, placing the wide ends towards the outer or longer side of the curve. I also had miscalculated and had to cut and stain additional deck planks. I easily got into a zone: spreading glue on the stringers, placing several planks, and repeating the process.

NBW castings aren't always awful

After completing the deck, the next step was to deal with the guard timbers. I first cut the 8" X 8" scale strip wood to length, marking and cutting each one to fit along the curve. I made sure to keep the two batches (inner and outer curve) separated as I cut and stained the strip wood. After the stain dried, I glued the timbers in place. I chose to inset from the edge of the planking a bit more than necessary because after ballasting, the outer edges of the deck planks will be all that is actually seen. Also, unlike the bents' NBWs, the NBWs on the guard timbers will be front and center. So, I decided to try again. First of all, I went with a larger casting. Grandt Line #5123, with a 2 1/2" nut and a 6 1/2" washer seemed appropriate, and I had an unopened pack of them. While still on the sprue, I painted the casting with Model Master "Rust." I found a technique that worked much better for me. First I drilled the holes in the timber longer than I thought I would need and with a slightly larger bit in the pin vice.   Then I developed a method of holding and cutting the individual casting off the sprue without it flying off the bench or having the "post" too short. I grabbed the post just below the washer with a bent tweezer in one hand and with my left hand I cut the post off the sprue with the cutter "backwards." Normally with a sprue cutter or flush cutter, one cuts with the flat side towards the "good" piece. However in this case there wasn't enough room, and the flat side of the cutter had to go towards the waste on the sprue. Without removing the casting from the tweezer's grip, I dipped the end of the post into a drop of CA and slid it into a waiting hole in the timber. I only lost or destroyed two or three of the twenty odd NBWs I needed for bolting the guard timbers, and while it was not an easy process, it was not fraught with frustration this time. The addition of NBW castings will be a prominent bit of texture on the completed trestle, so I am glad that I tried again.

Landforms Around the Trestle

The plaster cloth is cold to the touch, so it is not dry yet.

To install the trestle (the last step to finish the track-work) I needed to actually start the scenery by creating the landforms around the trestle. In addition to the creek bed directly under the trestle, I am creating the landforms in the vicinity--hills on either side of the creek and a cut through the hill for the track.

A number of techniques are possibilities for creating 3-D landforms: pink foam insulation board, screen and plaster, geodesic foam scenery, paver sand à la Paul Scoles, rosin paper, or glue shell. I have chosen to use cardboard web and plater cloth, largely because I have a bunch of cardboard around the house--Ikea packaging and the seemingly endless stash of boxes from the move across the country. While it has fallen somewhat out of favor, I will describe the process of this old-school technique.

The first step is to cut 1 inch strips of cardboard using a utility knife and a metal straight edge. Then, the framework for the landform is created by weaving the strips into the desired location. The ends can be attached with a staple gun or hot glue gun. To attach the strips to each other as they are woven together, either an office stapler, hot glue gun, or white glue and clothespins can be used. I used the office stapler and hot glue gun to save time; I also burnt my finger with oozing hot glue.

After the cardboard webbing is satisfactory, the next step is to protect any surrounding parts of the layout from the application of the hardshell. While using plaster cloth is a lot less messy than paper towels dipped in plaster, the potential is still there for plaster drips to cause an unsightly glob where you least want it. I covered the track and cork with blue tape and the backdrop with wax paper. This photo shows the webbing complete and the rest of the layout protected, ready for the application of the plaster cloth.

I had a roll of Woodland Scenics plaster cloth on hand. I picked up a budget kitchen scissors at the dollar store for, wait for it, a dollar, and it has become the dedicated plaster gauze cutter. I cut the pieces at 4-6 inches, and piled up a bunch of them before starting. The application is fairly straight forward. Picking up a rectangle by two corners, it is dipped into water just long enough to wet the surface, held above the bowl or paint tray to drip excess water off, and then it is applied to the cardboard web.


I overlapped the pieces by about a third, and then, smoothed out the plaster with my finger at the overlap to adhere the two pieces together. I also used my finger to smooth the plaster cloth down as it joins the plywood. After the plaster dries, I will double check the trestle in location. I may add a final layer of Sculptamold over the hardshell and a rock casting at the vertical face of the cut seen in this photo.