Sippin' Swamp Diorama - Part 9 - Trestle In the Swamp

Let's upright some pilings tonight!

 The stain is finally dry so we'll take our bag of piles and our bag of crossties, along with some full strength Elmer's glue and get to work on the base.

 First I lightly sand both ends of each piling just to knock off any burrs from sawing.  If I notice one that is cut sideways, I through it in the scrap bin for later.  I'll sand 12 of the pilings at a time.

 There! The dirty dozen!  Ready to be glue.

 "Alright men!  In formation!"  Using straight glue I put a good size blob down at the intersection of the shadow tie and rail.  The blob gives the piling a little more standing tension.  Using tweezers or your hands, upright the pilings twelve at a time. Don't worry if some are a little crooked as they looked that way in real life.  Also, the crosstie will straighten them up as well.

 On the top of each piling I put a small dab of glue being carefull not to put too much as it will run down the post.

 Using a pair of tweezers I pick up each crosstie on the BROAD SIDE (there are two widths on most ties and I want the long size) in the middle of the tie and place it on the pilings in the center, carefully tapping the tie into the glue without moving the pilings.

 Once those are done, I'll put in 12 more pilings and repeat the process.

 Just like soldiers they begin to line up.  No, the ties aren't perfectly level, but don't worry about it yet.

 Twelve and twelve and twelve more...slowly, slowly.  Just imagine building a whole big swamp one foot at a time!

 Here you can see it from overhead.  Not straight, and that is the way I want it.  Imagine pounding a piling in a swamp that is muck for 20-40 feet deep!  The pilings go all different ways.

 Slowly, slowly we get the length of track from island to island.  These ties are closer together than the one in the picture.  That is because the one in the photo is driven into sand on a low island.  These are in the water.

 All done!  Now we'll let it dry for a couple of days so that it is VERY firm.  Then we'll lightly sand the ties.

Imagine the train coming on the wobbly road!