This bridge was somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, but that is all I know or have been able to find. The man who wrote the article from which this picture is taken is looking for more information but isn’t so far having any more luck than I am. I told him if anybody would know where this bridge is, it would be this community!
Perhaps there is a better place to ask for this information, but I don’t know where that would be.
Thanks. Here’s the bridge. What particularly interests me of course is the lower part.
Not sure of the precise location, but the railroad was the Cowlitz, Chehalis and Cascade, a logging line in Washington State. I recall having seen an article about how the logs for that base A-frame were replaced (after they started to rot.) That must have been a half-century or more ago - the article, not the engineering job.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
And people think you’re just signs!!!
I’m tracking this down…a search turns up that they have a facebook called fans of that logging rr, and when I find my own facebook account I’ll ask them about it.
well then, thanks!
That is one neat bridge. Shoot me the GPS location of where this was is you get more info on it!!!
Wow, that looks like something John Allen would have built.
I knew that I had seen this image before, but somehow missed it in my first pass through one of those books.
This bridge photo appears in at least two books on railroad logging:
First, published in 1961, it is on page 55 of Logging Railroads of the West by Kramer Adams (Superior Publishing Co.). Those volumes from Superior aren’t known for their complete or necessarily accurate photo captions, but it is identified as “Mayfield Bridge of Cowlitz, Chehalis & Cascade”. It states that the last train across the bridge was in 1955.
Of course, knowing “Mayfield Bridge” and the RR name can lead to a better Google inquiry.
The image also appears in the classic Railroads In The Woods by Labbe & Goe (Howell North, 1961). In my 1970 printing, it is on page 244. Apparently, that page # may be different in various printings.
The web site http://www.mendorailhistory.org/blog/?p=517 lists the photo as "The pic was taken from page 236 of John T. Labbe and Vernon Coe’s book, “Railroads in the Woods”. The text reads, “Spectacular bridge near Mayfield, Washington, on the Cowlitz and Cascade Railway. This short line was built to serve the logging industry. It ended operations in may 1955 when the Long Bell camp near Mayfield was closed. In the photo No.20, an ex-Northern Pacific 4-6-0, makes the last trip over the bridge. The bridge was condemned near the last and two engines were used. One pushed the train across, after which the crew walked across and continued on the other side.”
My copy of Railroads In The Woods contains that caption, but lists the locomotive as a 4-8-0. That certainly appears to be a 4-8-0 rather than a 4-6-0, so I suspect a typo in the copy on mendorailhistory.
Now, finishing on location: This would thus likely be a bridge over the C
Thanks, Bill, to you and everyone for their responses…I’ve managed to put together this and compile other reliable information, and I’ll post sometime this weekend after Thanksgiving…I also found another fascinating bridge while on this search which I’ll include.
Thanks again, and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!