The last several weeks proved to be some of the busiest for me at work and as such progress has slowed. Today, however, I tackled another milestone – completing all of the assembly for the trestle structure itself. I tacked on the final bracing, stringers and girts to complete the lower section. Here’s a few photos of what it’s looking like:

This means that the to-do list is getting shorter and shorter. Here are a few highlights of what’s left:

• NBW castings on the side-facing stringers and beams. This will take a good amount of time as I will have to drill and install each one. Much like what I did on the bents, but a bit fewer. I’m not going to install NBW castings on the inner facing beams due to the difficulty in placing them in such tight spaces.
• Attach a brace to the bottom of the middle two bents. This will serve as support when the model is turned upright.
• Build a sort of cradle to hold the bridge when upright.
• Remove bridge from base and flip upright onto cradle/steps.
• Build two emergency platforms on the top side.
• Install the two beams that run atop the deck parallel to the track, install NBW castings.
• Install bracing/walkways that run along top of bents.
• Weather and install on layout.
• Build and install bracing around lower center bents and cribbing for the ends.
• Drink a cold beer.