HO scale trestle bridge — Model railroad layouts plans

Ben makes a trestle bridge

“Hello Al,

Hope all is well with you!

To begin, I wanted to let you know your “Beginners Guide to Model Railroading” is a wonderful resource. It is well written, filled with practical tips, links to other resources, and a great value for the price. Thanks for creating it. I’ll be referring to it often!

I’m writing to give an update on the building of the 3rd line on my HO scale layout. Specifically, the curved wooden trestle bridge I made from scratch.

Initially, I planned to buy a trestle kit, but finding one that met the specs of my layout was extremely difficult.

After a lot of searching I did find two curved trestle bridge kits that would work for me, but they were both listed as “out of stock” with no indication of when – if ever – they would be back in stock. So, I decided to build my own! Building anything from scratch – much less a 36-inch curved wooden bridge – is a first for me and I had doubts that I could pull it off.

I don’t have the steadiest of hands and I’ve always joked about being all thumbs when it comes to anything with small parts. But with some planning, practice and patience I completed the project.

For any of your readers who are thinking “I could never do that”, I say “Trust me folks, If I can do it, anyone can!” It was actually a lot of fun and I learned a lot in the process.

I enjoyed the project so much I’ve started building a smaller “dry gulch” bridge for another area of the layout.

I have attached a few pictures that show some of the steps I took while making the bridge. I also created a 15 minute “how-to” video that documents the project from start to finish for anyone who is thinking of doing a bridge scratch build for the first time. Thanks again for all you do on your site. I really enjoy reading the posts from other modelers. With every story I learn something new! Stay safe and well!

Ben from Chicago.”