As you can see, the bents were too tall for this installation and the middle bents needed to be cut. Xuron rail cutters made quick work of cutting sections off the bottom of the middle bents. The "landscape" needs to be modified so that these trimmed bents will fit properly. The Heljan kit is a very flexible kit and could be used to make several smaller trestle bridges. The photos on the next page will show more detail of the fitting and assembly procedure. (The Heljan instructions were very "unclear" to me so I had to fit many of the parts by trial and error, but I would still recommend the kit as a good, economical way for a beginner to put a nice trestle in the layout.
To install the Heljan plastic trestle kit ($19) the blue foam sub roadbed and cork roadbed was cut out from under the flex track. Then the trestle deck sections were glued to bottom of the flex track tie strip and secured temporarily with twist ties. The deck comes in several sections and can be installed in a straight line or, as in this case, in a curve. The trestle is almost straight on the north end half but has about a 22" radius curve on the south half. Next (right) the trestle bents are used as a template for marking the white foam for removal. The bents are molded "partially assembled" as shown and the remaining cross members must be installed before the bents are finally put in place.
