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.