# N Scale Bridge Lumber



## Matison (12 mo ago)

This weekend, I want to cut lumber in bulk for N scale bridge piers. I’ll set up a sled on the tablesaw to accommodate the small dimensions. The piers will be upto 7” in height.

I’m not sure of the width dimensions that would be most appropriate for this scale. 
I was thinking of using 3/16” square pieces of either oak, maple or basswood because that’s what I have the most of. Is 3/16” too thick for N scale piers?

I am working on my very first model train setup. It is in a small room, and I don’t have a lot of space for it. In the warmer weather, I may move it into the carport, and make it bigger. I made a hill with a tunnel yesterday, and it looks pretty ugly to me. After 24 hours, the plaster is not even dry, but I haven’t given up on it yet. Maybe with trees, grass and rocks it will look better


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## OilValleyRy (Oct 3, 2021)

According to my multi scale ruler, 3/16s is exactly 2.5 feet in N.
Are you building a wooden trestle? When I hear piers I think stone/cement wall-type footings.
I’m not sure smaller than 3/16 would be trustworthy for me. To each their own. I would use something like plywood as structural support, and laminate it with scale lumber for cosmetic purpose. But again, I’m thinking in my definition of piers. If a trestle type, maybe scale aluminum square tube for some of the supports, to provide structural integrity, with the other legs and bracing being scale wood and cosmetic only.
I really don’t know the size lumber of prototype trestles, but I doubt they were 30 inch thick beams. That’s like a pillar outside a courthouse. But, admittedly, what the heck do I know about it?


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

Matison said:


> This weekend, I want to cut lumber in bulk for N scale bridge piers. I’ll set up a sled on the tablesaw to accommodate the small dimensions. The piers will be upto 7” in height.
> 
> I’m not sure of the width dimensions that would be most appropriate for this scale.
> I was thinking of using 3/16” square pieces of either oak, maple or basswood because that’s what I have the most of. Is 3/16” too thick for N scale piers?
> ...


Matison;

An N-scale foot is about 1/16", so your 3/16' square pieces would be about a square yard in N-scale. You can buy basswood strips in many small dimensions from a good hobby shop, or online from www.modeltrainstuff.com www.trainworld.com or even www.amazon.com That's the material I used to scratchbuild the wooden bridges & trestle in the photos below. I think using commercially available stock is a whole lot easier than cutting your own stock, but that's your choice.
If you can saw, or sand, your strips down to 1/16" square, that would be a 12" x 12" beam in N-scale. 3/32" would be an 18" x 18" beam, either of which should be plenty big enough for a light to medium N-scale trestle. The little coal dump trestle in the photo uses 1/16" square basswood stock for its vertical beams.

The frames that form a trestle (called "bents") are often duplicates. It saves a lot of work to make a plastic jig to hold the pieces of the bents in alignment while the glue sets. That way you can "mass produce" as many bents as needed.
There are several good books from Kalmbach publishing Co. on building model trestles & bridges. I also recommend the book "Getting Started in Model Railroading" by Jeff Wilson. Its a very good beginner's book, These books are available on Amazon.

You might also consider buying a scale ruler. The top one in that photo has all the popular scales on it, including N-scale. Its made by General, and available through the online sources I quoted. 
If your tunnel doesn't dry, you could use stacked layers of extruded foam insulation board, or plaster impregnated towels from Woodland Scenics. What kind of plaster did you use? Finally you might check out the "Beginner's Q&A section of this forum. There is a lot of good info in there, particularly in the thread titled "Help a New Modeler to get started."

Good Luck & Have Fun;

Traction Fan 🙂


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

While you could saw your own, in N scale these things are pretty small -- 1/16th of an inch -- so you Amy be better off purchasing scale lumber from a hobby shop instead.


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## prrfan (Dec 19, 2014)

Reading this thread reminded me of a story about huge timbers in a railroad related structure. 
When I worked on eastern Long Island our company shared work and storage space with some other landscapers in an old potato trans-load facility. 

This was a large building, resembling a scaled down aircraft hanger. The old siding was still there in the driveway, mostly gravel covered. 
Well, the building at one time had conveyor belts and other equipment for loading potatos into rail cars. This was all supported by huge vertical timbers sitting in framed wooden brackets in the ceiling. 

When they converted the building to a warehouse they removed all that equipment and with it, the timbers. But not entirely. They simply cut off the timbers under the brackets and left the remaining huge chunks in the brackets, about 30 ft high. Secured? Welllll….

One Monday morning my lead foreman and I walked in and saw a 2 ft cube of timber lying on the floor surrounded by debris. I, being Grouch Boss of course said “ Now who left this thing here…?” It took us a minute to come to the horrifying realization that the culprit was Mr. Gravity. 😳
There were several others of the same size and slightly smaller still up there. Everyone got a day off until that potential tragedy was corrected.


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## scenicsRme (Aug 19, 2020)

I realize this is an old post, and the OP may have moved on or is buried under a huge pile of sawdust from sawing all his own stripwood, but just clarify something, wood trestles were seldom built from dimensional lumber, but local trees were cut, debarked, and pile driven into the ground still round, at least for the major bent members, then crossmembers were added. these may be dimensional rough sawn on site with a portable mill.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

scenicsRme said:


> I realize this is an old post, and the OP may have moved on or is buried under a huge pile of sawdust from sawing all his own stripwood, but just clarify something, wood trestles were seldom built from dimensional lumber, but local trees were cut, debarked, and pile driven into the ground still round, at least for the major bent members, then crossmembers were added. these may be dimensional rough sawn on site with a portable mill.


Not only are you resurrecting an old post, but it's not even relevant information. The principles of sound engineering dictate that there be some uniformity to the structure. Only on a very remote and very temporary spur would no consideration be given to the size of the lumber being used, even if they did cut it on site. Wanna guess how much local timber was used in the construction of the original Dale Creek Crossing (see below) on the Union Pacific Railroad?


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