Can railroads be fined for blocking a navicable waterway the same way they can be fined for blocking a grade crossing? It seems possible that a train could block a drawbridge for the same reason as blocking a crossing (waiting for clearance, equipment problem, ect). And sometimes the drawbridge itself gets stuck.
I am sure that they can get fined. But the person incharge of the draw bridge will not let a train sit on it if it does not have a way to clear off the other side. As far as the road crossings go, they dont get fined until they have been there for a while. If it is an equipment problem, say a derailment or something like that, the railroad would not get fined at a road crossing.
If the drawbridge gets stuck, it will not allow trains across it.
Water traffic has the right of way. In fact on lightly traveled lines, the normal position for a drawbridge is open. The bridge will only be closed on the appoarch of a train.
Any malfunctions or other conditions that prohibit the bridge from being opened must be reported to the Coast Guard. I don’t know how much of a valid threat it was, but a tug captain once threatened to call the Coast Guard and have me arrested for failing to open the bridge for him.
Nick
Yes you can be fined but what happened most of the time was the Coast Guard will call the bridge op to ask what the hold up is. The problem we would have is a 150 car coal train the dispatcher wants you to run and we have a “salty” ocean ship in high winds. Bottom line the train has brakes the boat only has tugs.
In Chicago, most, if not all movable bridges are high enough above water to allow tug-barge combos to pass underneath even when the bridges are lowered. Masted navigation is relatively uncommon on the Chicago River and there are restrictions as to when the bridges will be raised since the road bridges are not manned full-time. The Calumet River still has a fair amount of masted navigation and all rail and road bridges are manned full-time.
Conrail used to post an ad in the classified ads of both major papers stating that the Calumet River Bridge would not be manned during the winter months and stated who to contact to make arrangements to have the bridge raised during that period.
The captain of Riverboat Twilight explained to me how the UP bridge at Clinton IA functions. Captain calls the bridgemaster on the marine radio as soon as possible to inform him of ETA. Then bridgemaster asks the dispatcher to run as many trains as possible before that time. On our trip upriver, I saw 2 e/b and a w/b crossing ahead of us. Then bridgemaster sets rr signals to red indication. After 5 minutes he blows the horn and opened the bridge for us. The bridgemaster knows all the tug guys and the cruise captains. He worked the bridge for 28 years.
On our bridge we didnt have a radio for the Coast Guard. Some bridges had them we didnt so it was all horn blowing. Our bridge had a light on top of the bridge that duplicated what the horn was blowing.
Thats crazy!!!
Where I live here in milwaukee we have a couple of swing bridges which get used alot during the summer when tour bout and barges go though like coal barges yes we get coal deliverys by barges to not just by train. But it is really cool to see the bridges to move like they do. They even get used in the winter time but not as much as the summer. Time we do have one bridge that has not moved in like 50 or so years it just sits in the middle of the milwaukee river and it so rusted that I’m sure it can’t move anymore but who knows actually now that. I think about it I don’t think trains go over it anymore cause the tracks are pulled up and covered up with rock and asphalt.
Does anyone remember the opening scene of “Maximum Overdrive”? And AC/DC singing “Who Made Who”
As a former Coastie I know its against the law the block Navigable waterways even with a train I don’t remember the law exactly and I’m not sure who would fined the RR or the bridgetender as in my AOR everyone was aware that it wasn’t too be blocked and never had a problem
Coincidentally, I just got back from Milwaukee a couple of hours ago. While there, I had a couple of hours to pass so I parked just south of the river on Second Street (too cheap to pay for parking) and was about to walk over the bridge to check out the progress on the Amtrak station remodelling project (outside is shaping up, inside is still a plywood rabbit warren). Just then, up goes the street bridge. Now, not too far from the street bridge is the Milwaukee Road (oops, I mean the CP) mainline, which crosses a swing bridge that rotates on an off-center pivot. One thing I found out then and there…when open, the swing span tucks right up against a riverside warehouse and allows someone standing on the street bridge to look straight down the span for a (short) engineer’s eye view through the bridge. I also can’t help but think that when that old warehouse gets turned into condominiums, the river view units are going to have and occassional (surprising) obstruction to their view. The first time someone looks out their new living room window to watch a boat go by and sees a large girder right in front of their window…priceless!
The BNSF former ATSF transcon crosses the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal on an old swing bridge in downtown Lemont, Illinois. The bridge is inoperable, and quite low to the water.
One day I was down there taking photos and a group of barges pushed by a tug was quickly approaching the bridge. It didn’t take much to realize the pilot tower(?) on the tug would not make the low clearance under the bridge. I got my camera ready, just in case… and the entire tower lowered so the tug could clear the bridge, then popped back up on the other side.
Needless to say, I learnt something that day.
Retractable pilothouses are standard on towboats built for the Illinois Waterway. I’ve observed the same thing on the South Branch of the Chicago River and the Calumet River.
PZ, I remember the first time I saw that (near Lemont). I know exactly how you felt.
So exactly what goes up and down that waterway that calls for the highway bridges to be so tall?
(Can’t wait to drive over the new 355 bridge when it’s done!)
Traffic on the Illinois Waterway (Illinois River, Chicago River, Calumet River, Calumet-Sag Channel and Sanitary & Ship Canal) is towboat and barge, usually not more than five or six barges per tow. Most bridges in the Chicago area are high enough above water that they will still clear tows when in the lowered position but this is not always the case further downstream. Most bridges in the Joliet area have to be raised even for tows.
Many of the fixed bridges are designed to be converted to movable bridges in the event of a national emergency. This is based on the fact that during WW2 many Liberty Ships, Victory Ships and some smaller warships were built on the Great Lakes and had to navigate the Mississippi River to get to open water since the existing locks on the St. Lawrence River were too small.
I think three or four years ago that bridge was used to transport the Hiwatha observation deck car to the Milwaukee Public Musuem. They loaded the car off of the tracks by the Italian Community Center onto a flatbed truck and transported the car to the musuem. But, other than that one occasion I have never seen that bridge in use.
I can’t speak directly for the tug captian, but consider his “threat” a promise. I’ve seen it happen.