John Fuller who has posted other RF&P pictures on web sites has a large number of pictures of the Cameron Run bridge replacement. (located between NS Van Dorn St yard and CSX AF interlocking)
This is the CSX (RF&P) crossing of the NS (SOU) Seminary yard lead from NS’s ATL-WASH route. The RF&P built this bridge over SOU about 1904 and at one time the bridge had 3 tracks but because of the increased guage loading of all RRs was demoted to 2 tracks and has been considered substandard.
As Part of the 3 tracking of CSX from Fredricksburg to Virginia Ave tunnel for VRE and additional Amtrak service the Cameron Run overpass has needed to be replaced. The final work started Thur May 28 and continued till Wedensday morning Jun 2. However the actual closing of the bridge to CSX traffic was only from Saturday till Tue for about 72Hrs. Some Amtrak traffic was run through on NS but to speed the replacement construction work an embargo on CSX and NS was in effect. Only one CSX track is now in place until 1st of July then a 2nd track probably for final settlement of the new bridge and any tweaking of the CSX track? The new bridge will eventually allow for a 3rd track and allow for the planned 4th track bridge if and when HSR is initiated.
So enjoy the pictures: Note over 100 pictures so may take some time to download.
What I have found equally impressive is the ability of the RR’s to recover from an unplanned bridge outage (i.e. destroyed by fire, derailment, etc.) There are 2 UP RR projects that come to mind. 1 was in Galt, IL where a truss bridge was taken out by a derailment. They had a shoofly in place in a day and a new bridge in a week.
The other was an approx 1,000’ long bridge in Sacremento which vandals burned. There again, in about a week, they had mustered the resources to build a new bridge to replace it.
Most impressive I have witnessed was CSX’s recovery on it’s NO&M subdivision from New Orleans to East of Mobile after Katrina. Numerous bridges spanning wide water bodies in addition to all the trackage that had been washed off the right of way as well as clearing debris (houses, barges etc.) that had been washed onto the right of way. From near total devastation to a resumption of normal operations in less than 6 months for approximately 130 miles of railroad…during the same time frame, local, state and federal governments still had not let contracts for the repairs necessary to the damaged highways in the area.
