When I was originally reading about the Lake Erie & Northern Railway, in John Mills book "Traction on the Grand", I was struck by one image by Robert Sandusky. It was of a car traversing a low piling trestle over a lily clogged mill pond. The caption stated that it was south of Simcoe, Ontario.
When I decided to model the line I knew that was one image that I wanted to recapture.
Further research and a field trip took me to the Brook Conservation Area, a small park. There I found the remains of a dam for the Brook Woolen Mill, a company my uncle Bill Garvie worked for through the 70s.
This dam held back the head pond for the mill.
The footbridge across the dam led to the route of the LE&N right of way. This pond was the one captured by Bob Sandusky in the waning days of passenger service. In the overgrown weeds and trees at the water's edge was the rotting remains of the trestle.
I was able to take several photos from both sides of the pond to show the construction.
The paired pilings were driven into the ground, linked by cross stiffeners. The photo above shows one of the reinforced horizontal beams that held the power poles.
That was enough to give me a fair idea how to model it.
For strength, I put my power poles in tie cribbing filled with rock. I've seen this method on some northern highway routes. The modern method would be in a cofferdam of culvert piping. Gradually I filled in more cattails, reeds and lots of lily pads. I added ducks, geese, a family of swans and some Great Blue Herons. My trestle curved, but the real one was straight.
Now I have the chance to rebuild it on the new layout, straight this time.
A few hundred feet south If you follow the trail in Brook Park, are the abutments where the LE&N crossed the Lynn River proper. I don't have a photo of the bridge that was there, but from the concrete clues left behind, I can tell it was a deck plate girder bridge. I'm in the process of weathering a 70' Walthers girder bridge to go on my layout.
Just slightly north of the trestle is the crossing of two rail trails. The LE&N trail comes from the Simcoe town centre, while the CNR trail crosses at an angle. At a U.S. train show a few years ago I came across an image of that crossing taken by some rail fans in August 1941. It looks south toward the mill pond, unseen in the distance, but shows the tower and signal that protected the crossing.
Unseen to the left of the photographer is the interchange track with the CNR. I think I have room to include some of these items in the new layout.