D&H PA on a Swing Bridge

[rcdrye]

Nice Tom Nelligan Photo of D&H 18 on 8/2 with a very interesting train, with no D&H cars at all.  The baggage car and trailing coach are both CCF-built cars borrowed from Canadian Pacific.  The second car is ex-PRR (note the non-fluted sides), with the third an ex-NYC "Valley" Budd 10-6 still lettered for NYC.  Makes it the Montreal Limited, unless it's a special move.

[NorthWest]

http://ctr.trains.com/photo-of-the-day/2016/07/dh-pa-on-a-swing-bridge

[wanswheel]

Excerpt from Railway Engineering & Maintenance of Way, December 1915

And now another unique structure has been added to the long list of remarkable bridges of this great railway.  About a night's ride from New York City is one of the engineering triumphs of the age—the new swing bridge over the Lachine Canal, on the St. Lawrence River, in the Province of Quebec.

From Montreal, eastbound trains on the Canadian Pacific run on an elevated embankment to Montreal Junction, the point of divergence for lines north and south, and, crossing the Lachine Canal, reaches the south bank of the St. Lawrence just above the Lachine Rapids at the Indian village of Caughnawaga, on what is generally called the “Short Line” between Montreal and Halifax. Forty-four miles out of Montreal the Stanbridge and St. Guillaume subdivision of the Canadian Pacific Railway is crossed and ten miles farther on the Montreal and Boston Air Line diverges for the White Mountains and Boston.

In keeping with a general policy adopted some years ago for its entire transcontinental system, this “Short Line” has for some time been double-tracked except at the crossing at the Lachine Canal. Up to this year the company used a cantilever bridge with a channel span of some 408 ft., and lofty enough to allow the passage down stream of the largest steamers. But the converging of the tracks at both approaches to this bridge occasioned frequent delays to trains and it was decided that the crossing of the canal must also have two sets of rails. Double-tracking the cantilever bridge, however, presented difficulties and it was decided to replace it with a bridge of some other type. The Canadian Pacific Railway engineers are nothing if not inventive, and Mr. P.B. Motley, engineer of bridges, found it possible to design a double-track swing bridge in such a manner as not to decrease the waterway for traffic on the canal. To accomplish this, a type of bridge consisting of four deck plate girders instead of the usual lattice truss construction was used.

The new bridge is said to be unique in many respects and the most up-to-date on the North American continent. The plate girder span is understood to be the longest plate girder span of its kind ever built, being 239 ft. long and 13 ½  ft. deep in the center, reduced to 8 ft. at the ends, measured from back to back of the flange angles. There are four girders, and the weight of each of these is 112 tons and of the whole swing span 615 tons. There is also a 90 ft. span at the south end of the bridge to accommodate the existing roadway and admit the running of a possible railway track along the south canal bank. This span weighs 143 tons, making a total of 758 tons for the whole bridge. Notwithstanding the immense weight on one central pivot, this wonderful piece of mechanism is moved with the ease and apparent simplicity of the hands of a watch. From the time railway traffic is closed till the moment when the waterway is open for steamship traffic is a period of only seventy seconds.

When the bridge is open not only do the interlocking signals at the bridge indicate stop, but the automatic block signals to which they are connected give a distinct indication to an approaching train that it will find the interlocked signals at “stop” when they are reached. The electric operating power is carried by submarine cables under the canal, and, in addition, a spare 30-horse-power motor is kept on hand in the bridge house in case of emergency. The bridge is protected by the most modern interlocking machinery so as to make it impossible for a train to knowingly approach the bridge before it is properly closed and safely locked, and, in addition, it is impossible for the operator to open the bridge for canal traffic until all railway traffic is signalled to stop at a safe distance from the bridge. All of these operations are carried out from a signal tower which commands a view up and down the canal, even when trains are passing over the bridge. The structure is also provided with a system of lights for the protection of shipping on the canal, and gives a much clearer view along the track than formerly, as there is no overhead lattice work projecting above the rail level.

Not only is the design of this bridge very interesting but the rapidity of construction is also noteworthy. Work was started on the substructure less than a year ago and it was open for traffic a short time ago. During the progress of the work no trains were delayed by any of the operations, and considering the nature of the work and the tonnage used the speed of the work is remarkable. The cost of the structure was $233,000.

http://www.railpictures.net/photo/555186

http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/photos/cpr_steam/one.htm

Buster Keaton crossed Lachine Canal on CN swing bridge, at about 5:30 in video.

[bill613a]

It looks like the CP coach is on the rear of the train and that the sleeper is right behind the baggage car.

[Miningman]

Wanswheel- Fabulous links, hours and hours of pictures and reading. Fantastic. Thanks for this. 

[lvt1000]

Montreal Limited consist in 1970 included a sleeper lounge and a sleeper. That 2nd car is most likely a "Stream" series 5DBR-Lounge car and thus not ex Pennsy. During the PC bankruptcy proceedings I believe at one point CP impounded PC cars in Montreal for non-payment of demurrage charges

[rcdrye]

lvt1000

That 2nd car is most likely a "Stream" series 5DBR-Lounge car and thus not ex Pennsy.

Good catch.  I looked later at the sidewalls and realized that an ex-PRR "smooth-side" wouldn't need the applied nameboards - the smooth side look is due to the light angle.  The Montreal Limited's sleepers were usually supplied by NYC even before the PC merger.  What was more interesting to me was the use of CPR cars - by this time D&H had more of its ex-D&RGW/C&O cars than it needed to cover normal operations.

[NDG]

 

 

Lovely Photo.

 

Thank You.