If I had the time, I’d think about a bridge article, Ed. It would involve a lot of research that I don’t get time to do (right now, I’m helping a friend put together something on an interesting group of bright blue box cars). Add it to the list of possible retirement projects.
Actually, the big difference between bridges over the Ohio and the Mississippi is that few Ohio River railroad bridges are movable-span structures (Louisville has a lift bridge); and few of the Mississippi bridges (at least north of St. Louis) are fixed-span structures. You would almost expect the opposite to be true, because the busiest bridges, in terms of train traffic, are those like the UP at Clinton and BNSF at Burlington and Fort Madison.
So you pays your money and takes your choice.
I’ve been over and/or under nearly every railroad bridge involving navigable waterways in the Chicago area, and think they’d make a great photo feature. Many former movable-span structures have been fixed, either up or down, depending on the current status of the trackage.
Dale…or anyone else who cares to take a look at what I described earlier today in an above post.
Check over on TerraServer
Longitude -79.00288
Latitude 40.07328
3 Km N of Friedens, Pa.
Subject: Abandoned Boswell Branch {B&O}, coal hauler. Above location shows an area the railroad has about 4 horseshoe curves almost end to end.
Still visible quite well on the ground and it can be followed on TerraServer to see how it wound around the hills to maintain an acceptable grade to haul out the coal from half dozen or so mines in the area. It actually was built from Somerset, Pa. through several mining towns in the area and eventually joined back on the S&C of B&O at Friedens and that could lead to Johnstown or Somerset and Rockwood and the main line of the B&O at the time…Of course now CSX.
…The basic root of railroading, the track, should be a high interest of rail fans…Serious engineering is necessary to route a railroad over difficult terrain as compared to say the routing an interstate highway. Grades must be more closely controlled. All the major components such as the bridges, viaducts, tunnels. etc. would make good photo essays to the accompaniment of good articles of a certain district. I’d suppose as long as it’s in our country no matter where it is located, it would provide a high level of interest for many fans.
I guess I would fall into that category of people who find interest in railroad civil engineering, and structure in general. But then I’m the guy who goes to a wedding with my wife, who’s admireing the flowers and the dresses, while I’m looking at the ceiling, wondering what holds up the roof beams.[;)]
…Murphy…don’t feel alone in doing that, I do that all the time. And here I thought I was the only one…Ha…{Looking at those formed from small pieces} massive wood beams, even in our own church.
Well, this bridge should be of interest. It is in France though and called the Viaduc de Bevera. It is near Sospel on the Tenda pass line from Nice on the Cote d’Azur to Cuneo in the far northwest of Italy (with connection to Turin).
This is the 1962 version. It is 125 meters long and 30 meters high. It has 4 arches of 8 meters, 2 girders of 45 meters.
The original bridge was destroyed by the French in the night of 10 / 11 june 1940 after Italy declared war. Temporary bridge located nearby, with tunnel from 1940-1962.
The photo’s above were taken by Coen Thönissen and I found it on a weblog by Karel Thönissen.
This is the original bridge:
edit: To the left of the bridge is a 7 arch viaduct called Viaduc de la Bassera with a length of 140 meters and a height of 26 meters, arches are 7 meters wide. To the left of that bridge is the Tunnel de col de Braus, longest tunnel completely in France at 5938 meters.
The line functions as a French branchline, an internal longer distance line for Italy via France and as an international line. Think of the line as an upside down Y. See the map.
Google Séjourné, Paul. First result will get you to this page: http://fr.structurae.de/persons/data/index.cfm?ID=d000103 Under participation dans les grand projets suivants go to the Nice/ Vintimille section and you go to the Tenda pass structures.
He may have been more of an architect than structural engineer.
Good luck and good night, it’s way past my bedtime at 1.36 AM now.
…Marc: That is an interesting structure…I’m sure the French do these designs much different than we do in this country…{Compare that massive vehicle bridge just opened in France recently…}. It is an unbelieveable structure across a wide valley and hundreds of feet high…
I can see why the designer placed that arch perpendicular to the bridge length…Looks like the creek below it at that point runs parallel to the bridge for a ways there.
Sounds like a good story for a mudchicken to write. As obvious as some of it might seem, reviewing early methods and challenges, looking at the progression of construction methods and materials through the years, and building some track from scratch with today’s methods could make for some learning.
Yes, believe such article projects showing the old and new construction process including a nice assortment of photos would be great…How about it TRAINS folks…
