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Railroad Bridges
Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:12 am
by Rick A
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:40 am
by Rick A
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:41 am
by Rick A
[Catalogue] : the Berlin Iron Bridge Company, office and works, East Berlin, Connecticut, U.S.A. : iron railroad bridges, iron roofs ... etc. 1890
by Berlin Iron Bridge Co.
https://archive.org/details/cataloguebe ... 1/mode/2up
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:43 am
by Rick A
Types and details of bridge construction 1904
by Skinner, Frank W. (Frank Woodward), 1858-1932
https://archive.org/details/typesanddet ... 6/mode/2up
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:45 am
by Rick A
Iron and timber railway superstructures and general works; giving dimensions and quantities for the standard 4 ft. 8 1/2 in gauge, and the metre 3 ft. 3 3/8 in gauge ... with some earthwork tables, and outline of a specification and requirements 1874
by Grover, J. W. (John William), 1836-1892
https://archive.org/details/irontimberr ... v/mode/2up
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:50 am
by Rick A
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:53 am
by GP30M4216
Rick, where is home for you? I used to live in Connecticut.
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:54 am
by Rick A
And here in Maine where I live, the old Back Cove railroad swing bridge is about to be torn down. Too bad as my understanding is there aren't a lot of this type of bridge left standing.
https://wjbq.com/a-short-history-of-the ... otosvideo/
https://standardnews.com/youll-never-be ... dge-maine/
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/maine/a ... owhere-me/
Yeah, you read it right. That's the B&M baked bean factory in the background.
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:57 pm
by C&O Dispatcher
As part of my training back in 1970, I lowered and raised the C&O Black River drawbridge one time only. Same with the Saginaw River bridge from Washington Ave tower in 1976. I also worked about 5 years on a railroad swing bridge on the Mississippi River. That was an interesting job, especially if you liked a lot of solitude! Learned a lot about tow boats, barges, and locks/dam operation that was nearby.
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 10:13 am
by Rick A
C&O Dispatcher wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:57 pm
As part of my training back in 1970, I lowered and raised the C&O Black River drawbridge one time only. Same with the Saginaw River bridge from Washington Ave tower in 1976. I also worked about 5 years on a railroad swing bridge on the Mississippi River. That was an interesting job, especially if you liked a lot of solitude! Learned a lot about tow boats, barges, and locks/dam operation that was nearby.
did you ever have any "bridge malfunctions" ? If so, how were they resolved?
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 10:15 am
by Rick A
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 8:24 pm
by C&O Dispatcher
Rick A wrote: ↑Tue Apr 13, 2021 10:13 am
C&O Dispatcher wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:57 pm
As part of my training back in 1970, I lowered and raised the C&O Black River drawbridge one time only. Same with the Saginaw River bridge from Washington Ave tower in 1976. I also worked about 5 years on a railroad swing bridge on the Mississippi River. That was an interesting job, especially if you liked a lot of solitude! Learned a lot about tow boats, barges, and locks/dam operation that was nearby.
did you ever have any "bridge malfunctions" ? If so, how were they resolved?
Before it was permanently closed to navigation, the only times I can remember we raised the Saginaw River bridge was on some holidays when the RR was shut down and no operator on duty at Washington Ave. When the next operator came on duty and lowered the bridge, we usually had trouble getting it to close completely in order to lock it up. They would send a lite engine out of the yard and onto the bridge so the weight would push it down into place. While I was in Saginaw starting in 1976, I don't recall ever having a boat go south of the bridge.
On the swing bridge it could be a little tricky getting the lift rails to drop down into place when closing the bridge. We had a slide bar apparatus at each end and you would stop the bridge with the lift rails just off the drop-in points and lower the rails part way until they were resting on the slide bar. Then you'd give the bridge a little power, just enough to slide the rails into the "slots" and then lower them the rest of the way. Sometimes one rail would not drop in and I'd have to go down there with a sledge hammer and give it a whack to drop into place. Better have your feet out of the way when it dropped in!! On really windy days/nights, it might take several attempts to get the lift rails positioned to do the "drop-in" maneuver. If you tried to slide them more than 2 or 3 inches, there was always the danger of actually bending one of the rails and then MofW would have to come out and bend it back straight. That was rare, but not unheard of. We had an air brake to slow and stop the swing movement and to hold it in position when opened for river traffic. The max tow size was 15 barges (sometimes 16), which was 5 barges by 3 barges. Each barge was 200 ft by 35 feet, so 1000 feet long plus the tow boat.
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 11:14 am
by Rick A
C&O..it sounds like a tough job in the winter!
GP30M..I lived in Mass until retiring last June. Now I live on an island off Portland,Me.
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 11:16 am
by Rick A
Movables bridges by Hovey, Otis Ellis, 1864-1941
Publication date 1926
https://archive.org/details/movablesbri ... aw+bridges
The designing of draw-spans 1898
by Wright, Charles Herbert, 1857- [from old catalog]
https://archive.org/details/designingdr ... aw+bridges
An elementary and practical treatise on bridge building 1873
by Whipple, S
https://archive.org/details/elementaryp ... aw+bridges
There, now I'm heading out to my back yard to start building!
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 11:20 am
by Rick A
A quote from another forum.
A railroad trestle still in use I have visited is referred to as Tulip Trestle or Tulip Viaduct. It is located in southeastern Indiana north of Bloomfield near the community of Tulip.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffsb&q=tulip+ ... efault.jpg
Quite the imposing structure seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
Browse through the search items for some of the history. It is over 100 years old.
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 12:15 pm
by Rick A
There are some great railroad bridge photos on this NY public library digital collection site.
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/sea ... ad+bridges
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2021 12:16 pm
by Rick A
A few more from the NY collection.
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2021 10:49 pm
by Rick A
And now for something completely different. A railroad bridge? Well, sort of..
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 8:33 am
by Rick A
Re: Railroad Bridges
Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2021 3:16 pm
by Rick A
Bascule Bridge. Article from a 1909 Railway and Locomotive Engineering journal.
