I would like to scratch build a trestle bridge. I bought a box of fireplace matches that are .155 square giving me a scale size of 25 inches. Do you think they will look too big for the uprights of the trestle?
Welcome to Trainboard, bpach! You'll have to wait for other TB members for a better answer to your question. I can say that a 25-inch-square piece of timber would be pretty expensive even back in the days of wooden trestles. But would it look too big? I don't know. I use 1/16-inch-square (or round) pieces for pilings in my harbor scenes. I buy bamboo skewers at the local grocery store. I think it's 99 cents for about 200 of them. But they are round.
12" x 12" is a pretty common size for trestle bents. Unless your trestle is very tall and very long, 24" is probably going to look pretty big.
I've used 1/16 x 1/16 balsa (pretty cheap, in 3 foot lengths sold in hobby shops) for trestles. I think your .155 may look a bit thick. check my link below to my railimages account - there are some pics there of my scratchbuilt trestles. The other benefit of balsa is that its very easy to cut!
Thanks for the input. I thought it would be pretty big. I will Find some use for them. Dave N, those are impressive trestles, good work.
One of the major model trestle manufacture's uses 3/32" diameter dowels for the pilings, 1/16" x 3/32" for the pile caps and 0.023" x 0.046" for the horizontal and diagonal bracing.
