GeoTrax Trestle [Forums - Products]

Below is a video of a custom built trestle I constructed for my son.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did building it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP4HmYxX6oo

OMG!
That is AMAZING!

So a few questions:

1: How did you attach the pieces of GeoTrax to either end to make it "compatible" ?

2: How long did it take to build?

3: Did you work from an existing plan of some sort?

4: What else is in your pipeline?

I made a trestle using existing GeoTrax pieces and took the overall length measurements that way the wood trestle would fit perfectly into a our layout. The height under the straight track should be 8” or in multiples of 4” (the height of each gray support piece). The 1/4” square tie and ¼” square rail will bring you to the exact height of the plastic Georax rail. If you want trains to pass underneath, plan ahead so you don’t put a support where the train wants to go. I was going to make several crossing openings underneath but decided against it (I like the look of a continuous structure). I cut a geared (very important) straight piece with my chop saw and roughed up the bottom with sand paper (use the older track, the new stuff doesn’t have any surface area underneath). It was glued at the appropriate measurement using the same Gorilla super glue as the rest of the bridge.

The construction went quick, maybe 8 hrs. total, I used stops on my chop saw to speed up all the cuts and the jig was a life saver. The Gorilla super glue was awesome. I experimented with using accelerator and found it to be a winning combination. One drop of accelerator to a joint and it bonded instantly. I tried to separate a joint after 1 second and the wood split apart (the joints never failed) The bridge didn’t cost over $20.00 including the glue if you have a table saw to do some ripping.

I modified my plan from a very informative web site…
http://www.donet.com/~paulrace/trains ... idges/trestle/trestle.htm

I’m thinking of making a 90 degree curved trestle with a 4 foot radius. It would be nice to see the Geos on a long sweeping turn rather than a quick 90. Speed is still an issue for me, check out my other experiment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB1MZ0-AGD8
Oh, I’m trying to modify Bull and Bruno with a front female coupler. I’d like to have a switcher to use in the yard that can push and pull both frontwards and backwards.

Hope this helps!

Very cool trestle!

What is the music that you used in your video? I loved it.

It is "The Fighting 17th" by Hans Zimmer off the Backdraft CD. He is one of the best composers and has done many instermental pieces in over a hundred well known movies.

Love the trestles!!! Great Job!

Are you saying speed is an issue with the long turn or you just want the trains to go faster?

The sweeping trestle would be a nice replica for some of the "mountain" layouts I've tried to do. Would remind me of a segment still standing by Cloudcroft, NM.


Do you have a website we can get the plans and dimensions from?

(You can email them to me if you don't have one set up.)