Folks,
I’m trying to research my layout and need to identify the type of bridge shown in this aerial photo:
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=r4nsbd8dr9w3&style=o&lvl=2&scene=520318&sp=
Can you help me identify the type of bridge an who, if anyone, makes a bridge kit like it?
Thanks in advance.
It looks to be a type of swing bridge.
Looks like a swing bridge, but a very strange one indeed. It would pivot on that center pier (you can see the control house in the truss). It looks to me as if it no longer pivots, but it once did.
Don’t know about kits. I don’t think there are any in N; don’t know about HO.
Walther’s makes one, but you might want to make a trip by the Plastruct stand at the LHS if you want a model of that thing.
I was afraid of that.
Here ya go
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3088
I am assuming HO of course. Cool bridge, though!!
I saw that one but I’d have to kit-bash it to get it down to a single track.
I looks as if it is a double track bridge, but there is only one set of tracks through it now.
I think you may be right. There was never two tracks actually on the bridge as far as I know because it connects to this bridge (which has never been changed):
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=r4nc0s8dqqgj&style=o&lvl=1&scene=220401
At least the larger bridge is just a series of single-track truss bridges. Should be fun to compress and model.
I actually tracked this whole thing down and noticed that with the international bridge as well. Maybe there was big plans at one time that got dropped. Perhaps somebody from Buffalo could enlighten us. It is a really great looking area to model. I would love to incorporate a large waterfront with lots of bridges like that, but my situation will not permit that (wife is in the Air Force).
to CSmith9474:
I lived in the Buffalo NY area for 4 years, and I’ve been to that very bridge you mentioned. 
It’s a single-track bridge, south of Grand Island, and it spans the Niagara River. An urban bike trail actually runs underneath it (it’s a rough industrial/slummy neighborhood though) on the U.S. side (the bike trail is 25 miles long, from Amherst all the way down to Buffalo), and I’ve passed through there with my mountain bike. The enbankment is actually unguarded when I was there 3 years ago, no fencing, no warning signs, no nothing. I couldn’t see any obvious monitoring equipment, which is strange even in the pre-9/11 world, considering that this is an international crossing. I could have scaled the enbankment quite easily and literally walked across to Canada.
Google Maps also shows the same lack of security on the Canadian side… Immediate to the bridge abutment on the Canadian shore is a junkyard and access roads to surface streets, doesn’t look like there are any fencing anywhere.
I think the Border Patrol has beefed up the security some since though after 9/11.
Interesting area indeed!
Yes, it’s a very cool area to model. I’m modeling the NYC in the early-mid 1950’s so things weren’t as rundown as they are today. Also, there was significantly more trackage on the US side of the bridges back then. This area had quite a yard too:
(click to enlarge)
The lower right hand corner of the map shows the first bridge to Squaw Island. I’m still noodling on how I’m going to compress the railyard down for a useable layout. Any ideas from you bright folks would be welcome. [:)]
Just curious, but what makes you think it doesn’t swing anymore? Am I missing something? You could use an HO turntable and scratch one. It would be a fun project, and you could make it exactly like you want it…just a thought.
Yes, I’m not sure whether its operational today or not. There are still working locks to the north of the bridge along that river area to the East of Squaw Island. I would guess it’s still working but don’t know for sure.
More importantly, why have to chosen to mix Jem Haddar and Klingon aphorism in your signature line you petaQ!
“More importantly, why have to chosen to mix Jem Haddar and Klingon aphorism in your signature line you petaQ!”
Because it sounds cool, and fellow trekkies will get a kick out of it.
The only navigable waterway the Niagara River connects to would be the Erie Canal, which is about 3-4 miles north of that bridge at Tonawanda. Beyond that, the Niagara River is impassable, because you would go over the Niagara Falls another few miles further north.
The Erie Canal isn’t used for heavy commercial shipping anymore (mostly it’s small pleasure craft that goes through these days and maybe the odd tour boat), so my guess is that the Squaw Island swing bridge wouldn’t need to open any more to accomodate ships with tall superstructures. Just a guess though, I can be wrong.
I wonder who decided to build that bike trail there though. It goes through some of the worst places I’ve ever seen, including a former Manhattan Project atom bomb uranium refinement site (the Praxair complex), which is fenced off due to radiation contamination, plus a Niagara Mohawk coal-burning electrical generating plant (you can smell the coal burning in the air), a sewage treatment plant on Squaw Island (that’s what those round things you see on the island are), plus the slummy part of northern Buffalo. The area has an infamous history of toxic waste dumping, including the abandoned neighborhood of Love Canal north of Tonawanda. Needless to say I never went back that way ever again after I found out. 
The Atlas “Chord Bridge” is 18-inches long (in HO) and single track. It might make a good starting point for a scratch-build. It has a planked walk-way on either side of the track.
Today IS a good day to Model Trains!
Yep, the Erie Canal was surely the destination of ships in the 50’s motoring past the swing bridge at Squaw Island. The currents beneath the Intl Railway Bridge and Peace Bridge (just up river) are quite strong so the Squaw Island passby would be attractive to shipping (particularly heading south). The locks likely allowed for slower current and the drop from South of the Island to its north end. You are likely correct that the swing bridge is no longer is service because of the lack of shipping down the river.
Where’s the cheapest place to put a bike path? In and through unwanted real estate. Thi
This looks like it once was a swing span as well. I don’t see any control booth on it though, so it may not be operational now, but look at the base. this baby did some swingin’ in her younger days!
http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=r4nf598dqwwd&style=o&lvl=2&scene=520280