Coming down out of Beiber one makes two ninety degree turns and crosses the Pit River onto the Highline. My question is: Is the P.R. Bridge level or does the 2% grade actually start with the bridge? Related are there any graded bridges or are they pretty much all level? jc5729
I’m not sure what you are talking about. It’s all flat around Bieber / Nubieber.
Chad,
The June 2001 CTC Board says the first three miles south from Bieber is flat, but then the grade ranges up to 1.8% to gain 1600’. It says from the bridge there is a seven mile grade up to Dixie.
OK Dale, Yes there is a grade out of Big Valley, but that’s a few miles away from Bieber. In UP’s days this grade was the home of the “Harmonic Rocking” rule.
Do you have any shots of the bridge ?
Not sure what bridge you are talking about but I got these pixs of this beast last time I passed through, about 2 years ago. Shortly after that they had a good sized derailment there. My dad got pics but I wasn’t there.
The Pit River bridge, about three miles south of Bieber.
AFAIK, no reason why a bridge would be more likely to be level than any other piece of track.
The chart says the 1.5%-compensated climb starts a few hundred feet compass-north of the Pit River bridge, so the grade on the bridge is unlikely to be level. Might well be a bit less than 1.5%, tho-- the vertical curve is probably at least several hundred feet long.
Having driven I-5 across the Pit River Bridge, I believe that the track under the roadway is very close to dead level. I also found a view by Googling “Pit River Bridge” that seems to show all piers the same height except the middle one - longer spans on both sides, deeper truss, but the track deck still looked perfectly level. It might have begun to climb inside the last bridge span, but if it did it would take a sharp eye (and a good theodolite) to prove it.
Chuck (who is firmly convinced that the water surface under the bridge is level)
There are three bridges across the Pitt — the BNSF/WP bridge at Bieber (actually a bit South of town) on the way to Keddie; the McCoud River bridge a bit down stream near the dam and the SP/UP bridge down near Lakehead where the Pitt joins the Sacramento in Shasta Lake.
The only level bridge of the three (as far as I know) is the one at Lakehead.
Is the Modoc line bridge west of Alturas still in use ?
Short answer is Yes. It is between Klamath Falls and Alturas.
The crossing you show is at Canby, at the base of Ambrose Hill. It crosses again at Alturas before it it passes South of the Airport and then makes a third crossing just past the East boundry of the Airport prior to making a left turn at Lakeview Junction (the Y located just a few hundred feet North of the old Depot and SP Station Point for Alturas) to go to Lakeview. There actually are 6 rail crossing of the river that I know about, but I purposely omitted these three because they had not been mentioned in the earlier posts.
The last bridge that I mentioned at Alturas, is actually over the North Fork of the Pitt - the Pitt River itself ending just at the South edge of the airport.
The Lakeview Branch then crosses the North Fork again about 2 miles or so North of Alturas near the XL Ranch Reservation and just prior to Parker Creek. Again, another crossing of the North Fork occurrs just North of Surprise and then one last time just at the top of the hill where the North Fork turns West to the mouth of Goose Lake and the railroad and the highway go North up the East Side of Goose Lake.
That would be the former SP line. The former GN line is a few dozen miles away from Interstate 5.