Current Work Area(s)

The most recent work area has been the Pecos River Canyon. The original plan was to span the canyon with a wooden trestle; however, three of the trestle bents would have been anchored in the river bed and the resulting structure would have blocked the view of the water fall in the background. After searching several resources we landed on the idea of replacing the center of the span with a timber truss bridge. We used Jack Work's article in Kalmbach's Bridges & Trestles

book as a guide. Jack used lap joints and much more detailed construction than we did. We want to get trains running, so we weren't as meticulous as Jack. We decided that it would be easiest to construct the bridge upside-down on the bench and then fit it in to the canyon. Here it is Sunday afternoon and the bridge is installed over the canyon. There are two more bents to be installed, one at each end. Once the abutments are created, the track (Micro Engineering Code 83 Bridge track) can be installed.

What's next...
When we finish the Pecos River bridge there are two more bridges to construct on the main line. There are some scenic challenges associated with these bridges that may result in a change of plans. We'll see...