Spindly wood trestles crossing mountain gorges have always fas-cinated model railroad- ers. In the early days of railroading, it was the cheapest way to get a railroad across a river or valley and on to its destination. Railroads could, and often did, come back later to fill in the area under the trestle or replace it with an iron, steel, or masonry substitute. When the Stockton & Copperopolis RR was building south from Stockton, Calif, the Stanislaus River Valley was the chief obstacle in the path to Oakdale. In a few weeks in the fall of 1871, the railroad bridged the river with two 150-foot Howe truss bridges and more than 500 feet of approach trestle.
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