Sn3 RGS First District: Construction Update #20 - The Fascia, The Low Trestle at Fudd's Crossing and Trestle Bents for Bridge 45A

1st District Fascia

February 5, 2024

It took 5 sheets of Masonite to finish off the fascia. The widths ranges for 5 to 15 inches. Luckily my son Andrew has a fully equipped wood shop and it took less than an hour for us to rip nearly 200 linear feet of material. The fascia along the Placerville scene is shown below.

Here is the section that wraps around the peninsula between Vance Junction and Bridge 45A. Bridge 44A will be located where the fascia drops below the roadbed. Color has yet to be determined.

Fudd's Crossing

February 8, 2024

As mentioned in the last post, I decided to add a spur at Wilson. The new spur requires a new turnout and a bridge from the mainline on the far side of the San Miguel River to the near side.

Since the trestle needs to accommodate both rail and vehicle traffic I decided to use 11 foot long bridge ties. The stringers are 12 x14's. The Mt. Albert scale lumber was pre-cut and stained with Builders-in-Scale Silverwood.

The stringers were glued together and taped to my work surface. The ties were then glued to the stringers using styrene spacers, a square and tacky cement.

Here is the finished deck. The guard rails are 4x8's.

February 9,\2024

Here is the bridge just about ready for installation. The bents have been added at a angle to reflect the flow of the river. The ties were stripped from a piece of flex track and the rail was attached with Pliobond. I still need to install the planking in order to allow the passage of vehicles.

Here is the bridge temporarily set in place.

Trestle Bents

February 13, 2024

The RGS had lots of trestles so a fixture was made to help with the assembly. The fixture was built using a set of plans I found in a old Narrow Gauge Gazette and several plans for 1st District trestles in the RGS Story (Volume III). It should be noted that there were some discrepancies found when comparing the plans both in terms of layout and material sizes. Since I don't have the room to duplicate most if not all the trestles I will need, I used both plans along with some modelers license to decide on the layout and material sizes to build the fixture from a sheet .080" styrene and some leftovers from previous projects.

Here is the fixture being used to cut the bents. I started from the top and worked my way down. The posts and the sills are scale 12x12's (The sills should probably be 12x14's).

Some of the bents needed some final adjustments. I made this little fixture for my Northwest Shortline "True Sander" to maintain the proper angle while sanding down the length of the bents.

Here is a completed bent.

Once all the pieces were cut, they were removed from the fixture and stained with Builders-In-Scale Silverwood and set aside to dry. I made sure to arrange the pieces so that when it came time to assemble the bent, I would know exactly where they fit back into the fixture for gluing.

The pieces were put back in the fixture and glued in place with Aleen's Tacky Cement. The sway braces were added to one side while the bent was still in the fixture. The remaining sway braces, on the opposite side, were attached after the bent was removed from the fixture. The sway braces are 2x12's (One set of plans said they should be 3x9's, the other 3x12's). Based upon a review of the available photographs, it appears that the RGS nailed the sway braces to the bents so nut and bolt detail won't be added. Here are a couple of finished bents for Trestle 45A.