Building a new Pile Trestle

We got a little taste at Cumbres a week ago on how a pile driver works and how easy it is to drive piles into dirt next to the track. But now I wonder how you would build a trestle from scratch. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that OB bounced around a bit as it worked. I also shouldn't been surprised that it leaned a bit on the end of the wye on marginal track and no wonder Alan was a little cautious in allowing it at the end of the track.

So how would you use it to build a completely new trestle? You wouldn't have a stable track you could position it on. OB apparently doesn't have provision to drive at much of an angle, and rotating the body much more than a couple degrees off center would make it real unstable. It doesn't have "outriggers". Did it ever? So in it's current configuration, can it only replace piles in existing bridges? What would we need to do to use it to build a new trestle across the Cumbres meadow so we could extend the track over La Manga Pass ?

Bill Kepner



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/06/2016 05:25AM by drgw0579.