Update:
I now have an account before me that states that the alleged “freight cars over the Susquehanna ice” lasted but one month in 1852, with cables being used to pull the cars across the ice and a mere 1,300 or so cars being transferred over the ice. There was indeed a car float ferry for a spell.
1856 excerpt from Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Guide
The depth of the Susquehanna being quite considerable opposite Havre de Grace, reaching at some points to sixty feet; and the river being encumbered with flats or bars, extending nearly across it, at a short distance below the ferry, it is sometimes rendered impassable in severe winters, by the “jamming” of the ice when broken up by sudden thaws; that on the surface being prevented by the “bars” from floating into the bay, and becoming underlaid by floating ice forced down by the current, the entire depth of the river has been known to present an almost solid barrier, in consequence of the continued accumulation. This was the case in 1852, when the ice in the river offered so insurmountable an obstacle to its passage by any ordinary means, that it was determined to lay a track upon it. This was completed on the 15th day of January, and continued in use until February 24th, when it was taken up, and, in a few days, the river was free of ice. During this time, 1378 cars loaded with mails, baggage and freight were transported upon this natural bridge, the tonnage amounting to about 10,000 tons. The whole was accomplished without accident of any kind; and the materials were all removed prior to the breaking up of the river without the loss of a cross-tie or bar of iron.
1852 article, A Railroad Over Ice (From the Franklin Journal.)
The railroad lately laid upon a graduation of ice, provided by nature across the mouth of the Susquehanna river, at Havre de Grace, in the State of Maryland, seems to deserve a more permanent record than the fleeting notices of the daily press.
It adds another to the many striking evidences recently afforded of the promptitude with which the mind of the American engineer and mechanic grapples with unexpected difficulties, and triumphs over them.
The railroad uniting the cities of Baltimore and Philadelphia, touches both banks of the Susquehanna river at i
Hi,
I have been recently doing research on the first Rail Ferry in America between Havre de Grace and Perryville and happened across this thread. Well, since I am also a big rail fan, I decided to join the site.
Anyway, back to the story. Let’s see…first off. I am from the town of Havre de Grace and and if you really want to know how it is pronounced, there is even a Youtube link to that fact. The first few times gets it. It doesn’t change throughout the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWqCHQoJEMM
As to the rails crossing the Ice at Havre de Grace, here is a Lithograph I found that was made during the crossing mentioned above.
http://hdl.huntington.org/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p16003coll4/id/1527/rv/singleitem/rec/1
Thought you might like to see it.
The first rail lines between Havre de Grace and Perryville is in itself an interesting subject.
Bill
Activated the links for you! [tup]
Welcome ! Bill! [#welcome]
My German Mennonite ancestors lived along the Volga River in Ukraine for a while in the mid 1800s, and every winter, they would build an ice bridge by pouring buckets of water on top of the river ice. This bridge would remain solid after the river ice started melting, and by the time the bridge was too weak, they were able to cross in boats.
Hi All
Ice bridges are common in Northern Canada on winter roads.
In Yukon, there is an ice bridge at Dawson which is put in annually with a weight capacity IIRC of 60.000 kg for a crossing of the Yukon River. When I first went North many years ago now, that icebridge carried the output of the Cassiar Asbestos Corp, Clinton Creek mine and mill. Those trucks were well loaded.
On the Mackenzie and Peel River crossings on the Dempster Highway (NWT section) there are likewise icebridges of similar weight capacity. These carry large loads of freight Dawson to Inuvik.
The Inuvik, Aklavik, Tuktoyaktuk winter highway travels mainly on the Mackenzie River. It is a major winter ice road and has been for many years. Only now is it being replaced, Inuvik to Tuk, by an all weather highway at some incredible cost, using technologies which allow it to be built on permafrost.
The respective Highways Departments’ websites used to contain interesting information and historical data about the icebridges.
Both of the above are put in and maintained by the respective Territorial Highways Departments
Until the new Fort Providence (Deh Cho) Toll Bridge went in last year (or was it 2012) there was an icebridge there as well which crossed the MacKenzie, again on a major northern highway.
Freezeup and breakup were always problems for about 6 weeks each in the Icebridge-Ferry transition periods. People and businesses adjusted accordingly. It was part of living in the North.
Charlie
Chilliwack, BC
Lately my issue is ice removing my equipment from the track…
The Eagle lake locomotives in Maine were sledded over the ice to the mill location, as far as I know they didn’t lay any tracks.
All around the snowbelt there were spurs laid out into lakes for the purpose of harvesting the ice for the coming summers.
Randy
A piece of artwork and its caption in the book “Engines of War,” which my daughter bought for her history studies in college, show that the rail crossing over frozen Lake Baikal used horses, not locomotives, to pull the cars.
EofW is a fascinating read on early railway development throughout the world, particularly in the Middle East and southern Europe.
Consider how much volume of ice - which is only slightly less dense than water, so that won’t help much - and water displacement is needed to support a railcar of any significant weight.
Even ‘back in the day’, a 40,000 lb. gross weight railcar might be 30 to 40 ft. long, or about 1,000 to 1,300 lbs. per foot of length.
Water is about 62.4 lbs. per cubic foot, so to support 1,000 lbs. per foot, about 16.0 cu. ft. would have to be displaced. For example, that means a section of ice about 16 ft. wide (8 ft. on either side of the center of the track, or about 4 ft. beyond the ends of the ties on each side, which intuitively seems about right) would have to sink into the water about 1.0 feet to provide the needed buoyancy uplift to counteract the imposed weight of the car ( or an equivalent, such as 8 ft. wide x 2 feet deep, or 24 ft. wide x 0.67 ft. deep, etc.).
That 1,000 lbs. per ft. is equivalent to a Cooper’s E-10 loading, which is extremely light by later (E-40 to E-60) and modern standards (E-72 to E-80). However, it’s probably not far off from what the "Ice Road Truckers’ mentioned by Charlie above weight - 60,000 kg would be about 132,000 lbs., probably spread out over a little longer wheelbase than a standard US tractor-trailer, too. - maybe as much as 2,000 lbs. per foot. But a 5,000 lb. per ft. load (E-50) - which is roughly what a 175-ton (350,000 lb.) locomotive 70 ft. long, or a 286,000 lb. hopper 57 ft. long, etc. weighs - would have to displace about 5 times as much water, or 80 cu. ft. per longitudinal ft. For a width of 20 ft., that would be about 4.0 ft. down, or for a 30-ft. width, about 2.7 ft. down, either of which is an awful lot. Which is why we don’t see ice bridges for modern railcar loads.
Somewhere about 10+ years ago, my co-workers and I were looking over some DoD research topic, with one being a means of gauging the quality of ice for supporting trucks. We were musing over using NMR where we knew the basic physics would work, but making a practical system was another matter. I would suspect that some sort of ultrasound would be a cheaper and lighter solution.
The criteria for ice was sufficient depth and hardness, with the hardness being more significant.