RR bridge work around the country

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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following is a good list of RR bridge repairs going on – mostly in the eastern US. There is one interesting note that someone like PDN may be able to find more about; — CN has developed a traveling crane to lift out old spans and place new spans. I can only imagine how it looks and does it travel on RR tracks when assembled?

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/mow/article/Railroads-tackle-major-bridge-projects-to-replace-wornout-structures-speed-up-trains-and-improve-access-to-rail-service--33273

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The traveling crane may not be all that much different from the cranes used by the Milwaukee in constructing the Puget Sound Extension. These where used to assemble many of the larger steel bridges on the line.

  • Erik
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According to the article, the traveling gantry was developed by CN and Western Mechanical of Barrie, Ontario (Toronto), Canada, and used for a 4-span bridge over the Etchemin River in the Montmagny “Subdivision” of Quebec.

Link to Western Mechanical’s website: http://www.westernmechanical.net/index.html

Link to Western Mechanical’s “News” webpage, which includes 2 videos of RR bridge replacements among other large non-RR projects: http://www.westernmechanical.net/news.html

Direct links to those 2 videos - same bridge in Montmagny, Quebec, but different spans of it - the first video is 18 secs. long, the second is 30 secs.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZT8mDBRSL4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL3fJe0F9rk

Link to 'PDF" format spec sheet on the gantry (2 pages, 468 KB file size):

http://www.westernmechanical.net/Equipment/Equipment%20Gantry%20-%20Railway%20Bridge%20-%20Overview.pdf

Note that these bridge replacements involve deck-girder type spans. Through-girders would not be much harder, and perhaps it could also handle a deck truss that is still within its weight and length capacities. But this system - running on the rails as it does - does not appear capable of handling a through truss span.

At least 1 other railroad in the US has used a large/ long extendable rail-mounted crane for similar replacements, about a year or so ago. I’m thinking it was Amtrak or one of the Vermont railroads, but don’t quote me on that. Similar crane syste

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PDN thanks that is what I thought might be the crane… Noted that it can be broken down to travel by rail. That would be a great picture of it in a train.