St. Maries River RR Crane in the Water-Trestle Collapse

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

A railroad crane of the St. Maries River Railroad was plunged into Lake Benewah (an extension of Lake Coeur d’Alene) when the famous ex-Milwaukee Road trestle collapsed beneath it. The trestle is the well known one that is just out of a tunnel and at the base of the climb into Plummer. Here is the local TV station story, with a pic.

http://www.krem.com/topstories/stories/krem2_042406_craneax.68f5ab7d.html

if that dosen’t work, go tot he home page
http://www.krem.com

Ted Curphey
funnelfan@yahoo.com

2

Couldn’t they float a barge over their from St Maries? It looks as if the crane fell over on the river side of the lake.

Or maybe UP might be willing to loan a crane.

Hope they can get this all fixed. That trestle is one of a kind.

3

The mainline began a 1% grade right in the middle of the bridge.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=83226

http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=12&Z=11&X=653&Y=6555&W=1&qs=|chatcolet||

4

H’mm wonder what engineers will think if seeing this accident[?]

5

I have searched all my usual sources in vain for an update to this story – I would like to know how it turns out. Will the St. Maries railroad survive?

dd

6

I wonder if a complete inspection was made of the trestle before this type of weight was placed on it. A large derick can weight much more than standard engines and cars. My guess is a floating derick will be required to retreive it. I suspect this brige when new could not support the weight of the a derick being lifted with the weight of one large enough to lift it. I am glad no one was seriously hurt and glad I am not the one who authorised this equipment move![2c] As always ENJOY

7

[oops] Glad I’m not the B&B supervisor. It was noted in one of the articles that this was not the first time this piece of equipment had traversed this structure.

8

I would suspect lack of maintenance since 1974. The crane doesn’t look that big.

9

Wow. Here I thought the St. Maries River RR was already abandoned. Are they into freight business or is it like an excursion railroad? Nice thread!

10

This just in - Potlatch Corporation, owner of the St. Maries River Railroad, floated two barges with a crane to the site to lift the railroad crane out of the water. They expect they’ll get the trestle repaired in a few months. In the meantime, they’ll be trucking their lumber to Plummer for reload to centerbeams there.

Source: The Spokesman-Review today

11

thanks for the update

dd