I raised a bridge. It started life as a lowly culvert, but over time I raised it into a brawny, manly mighty oak timber span. It was the envy of its neighbors, most of whom were of the stone or concrete variety. They did their best to carry the load, but too often they suffered lost rocks or cracks. Meanwhile my manly timber bridge carried all comers. And through it all it stood tall and firm. It was the joy of my life. But then it broke my heart. My bridge took to drink. At first it was engine oil. He soaked up all he could get. I tried to stop him, but but it was too late. He was into diesel fuel. And then came the end. He OD'd on creosote then caught fire when a passing steamer shook it's grate. The entire population of Slab City (37 plus three dogs) came out to see the fire. It was the 4th of July, after all. So at least my bridge went out in a blaze of glory. The end.
I was back at the same spot a few days ago looking east. One span is in place and the second span is in the process of bring installed. The station is behind me a a little to the right. Raised about five feet.
I turned to the right looking west in front of the station. The roadbed is behind the steel "fence".
Looking west on the other side of the station.
The track that connects with the CSX and leads into the yard of the Pioneer Valley Railroad.
Steel for the second span.
Pioneer Valley yard.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Paul_D_North_JrCNW 6000 How far back from the center of the bridge/max height would you have to start realigning a grade to raise it say...30 feet and keep the approach grade around or under 1%? Neat question. The answer: 4,500 ft. back. The grade will be 1.00 % as specified. The entrance vertical curve ("VC") upwards will be 2,000 ft. long so that the rate of grade change in the "sag" is 0.05 % per 100 ft. ("surveying station") per AREMA recommendations for mainline tracks. Next will be a vertical tangent = constant grade of 1,500 ft. on the 1.00 %. Finally, the ending vertical curve downwards to level off will be 1,000 ft. long so that the rate of grade change at the "summit" is 0.10 % per 100 ft., again per AREMA. (The opposite side would be a mirror image.) So, total length = 4,500 ft. Total distance on grade between PVI's = [(1/2 of 2,000 ft. VC = 1,000 ft. from the PVI = "Point of Vertical Intersection") + 1,500 ft. tangent + (1/2 of 1,000 ft. VC = 500 ft.)] = 3,000 ft. total. Total rise = 1.00 % x 3,000 ft. on grade between the PVI's = 30 ft. Done !
CNW 6000 How far back from the center of the bridge/max height would you have to start realigning a grade to raise it say...30 feet and keep the approach grade around or under 1%?
Neat question. The answer: 4,500 ft. back. The grade will be 1.00 % as specified.
The entrance vertical curve ("VC") upwards will be 2,000 ft. long so that the rate of grade change in the "sag" is 0.05 % per 100 ft. ("surveying station") per AREMA recommendations for mainline tracks. Next will be a vertical tangent = constant grade of 1,500 ft. on the 1.00 %. Finally, the ending vertical curve downwards to level off will be 1,000 ft. long so that the rate of grade change at the "summit" is 0.10 % per 100 ft., again per AREMA. (The opposite side would be a mirror image.)
So, total length = 4,500 ft.
Total distance on grade between PVI's = [(1/2 of 2,000 ft. VC = 1,000 ft. from the PVI = "Point of Vertical Intersection") + 1,500 ft. tangent + (1/2 of 1,000 ft. VC = 500 ft.)] = 3,000 ft. total.
Total rise = 1.00 % x 3,000 ft. on grade between the PVI's = 30 ft. Done !
Of course, those numbers only apply in the simple case where the existing track gradient is level. If the track is on a grade the numbers will change, getting longer (possibly much longer) to the downhill side and shorter on the uphill side. Use Paul's formula, but you need to do a separate calculation for each approach.
Either way, though, to gain 30 feet you are looking at moving a lot of dirt to create nearly two miles of embankment, and generally it is a lot cheaper to depress or elevate a road. Some river crossings can be easier to raise, IF the tracks drop downgrade into the river valley from both sides.
John
Yes, the diamond was removed for the line running south in 1997. I was living about 1/2 mile from that diamond and I could always hear Conrail and Amtrak crossing the diamond, especially at night. Then one night I became aware I could hear the train but no noise from the diamond. I went down to the area next day and saw the diamond was gone. The main line at the time was dual track.
The bridge south will be come a rail trail that extends into Connecticut.
Hard to believe but a canal in the earlier 1800s use to come up the same area before the railroad and the canal crossed the Westfield River on a bridge. The center of Westfield use to have a turning basin for the boats.
This looks like the same bridge that I saw featured on World's Worst Drivers on Tru TV a few weeks ago. Ya know where this is going... 11' 5' bridge - dummy driver not paying attention drives his 12 foot high truck into the bridge at @30mph and rips the top off of the truck. Sad part is I laugh every time! There were so many incidents at the bridge that they put a internet cam in pointed at the bridge.
CC
Paul_D_North_Jr Rich - Thanks for the photo links and additional descriptions, esp. the "Explore Western Massachusetts" blog. I was not aware of that one - western Mass. is one of our more popular getaways - from Northampton/ Amherst, Shelbourne Falls, Deerfield River valley & Zoar, Hoosac Tunnel, North Adams, & down to Pittsfield, etc. Looking forward to whatever else you can provide ! - Paul North.
Rich - Thanks for the photo links and additional descriptions, esp. the "Explore Western Massachusetts" blog. I was not aware of that one - western Mass. is one of our more popular getaways - from Northampton/ Amherst, Shelbourne Falls, Deerfield River valley & Zoar, Hoosac Tunnel, North Adams, & down to Pittsfield, etc.
Looking forward to whatever else you can provide !
- Paul North.
Hi Paul
Yes, it is a great area. Here is some info about Chester MA. There use to be a pusher area in Chester about 20 miles west of Westfield during the steam era, 2-8-2s I think.
Every May, there is Chester On Track.
http://newenglandphotos.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html
http://www.hidden-hills.com/chesterfoundation/
The CSX runs along side the Westfield river which has a white water competition every April.
http://www.mass.info/huntington.ma/description.htm
Huntington MA is a few miles away from Chester. CSX runs though it also.
I am thinking it will be two track. I use to live right next to this section some years ago and my back yard was a great train watching site. If you go to Google maps and search for Westfield MA, you can see double track from the West Springfield yard all the way though Westfield and a few miles west of this bridge it becomes single track for a climb into the Berkshires. Use the Satellite option. The Google map is a couple years old I think. It does not show what is going on right now.
Just west of the bridge is the connection to the Pioneer Valley short line. A little east is a turnout into a local distribution yard. A little further east and a turnout into a rock salt distribution yard. Maybe a couple miles east of that is the Lane Quarry trap rock siding where cars are pushed up a siding and allowed to roll down as each car is filled be a large bucket loader. A series of belts delivers the trap rock into a couple large piles for the bucket loader.
The replacement bridge appears capable of two tracks. Is that a photo optical illusion? Hate to see any ROW future limited to one track.
As far as how track will approach bridge, I believe that it is now single track on what was once a multiple track ROW...at least a two track main plus sidings or industrial running tracks. Therefore it should be quite easy to keep the track as straight as possible with little effort.
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Here is a link to the Truss bridge photo looking North. Somehow they stopped the traffic for the photo or very early on a Sunday morning. Work on the replacement bridge had not started yet.
The old station is immediately to the left out of sight. Nice location for train watching, plus you can see one end of the Pioneer Valley yard and connection the the zcsx line.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OHTXLpC58tg/SFUd-S_qF-I/AAAAAAAACAU/XtIvc_dYdtA/s1600-h/06-15-08+065.jpg
http://explorewmass.blogspot.com/2008/06/westfields-bridge-project-scenes-from.html
I believe the bridge was buit around 1900.
To the left is Rt 202, three lanes. The center lane is to take a left just after going under the track. Only 11' 6" of clearance which has snagged many a trailer truck.
Way over to the right behind the pile of dirt you can just see two yellow signs on the bridge. That is for trucks. Really a choke situation.
At the same time a new bridge for vehicular traffic is being built across the Westfield River which is to the right and directly behind the camera location. What a mess during rush hour. Rt 202 North will go through what is now the truck route.
Someday I will try to get to the area where the new route will tie into the present track. Until a few years ago, this bridge was two track.
Main line a few years ago.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OHTXLpC58tg/Rd1llB4yGeI/AAAAAAAAAP8/0hoiPmS596Q/s1600-h/DCP_2887.JPG
In the 1800s, what is now RT 202 use to cross both tracks at track level. Many horse drawn wagons were taken out before the Truss bridge and underpass were built.
CN (or is it the state of Wisconsin?) is doing something similar, albiet smaller in scale, on their main track just south of Fond du Lac over Hwy 41, just north of Valley.
How far back from the center of the bridge/max height would you have to start realigning a grade to raise it say...30 feet and keep the approach grade around or under 1%?
Dan
It's pretty much straight through there - if anything, it may already have a slight bend to the south, which this will apparently add to. I just looked it up using:
http://www.pennpilot.psu.edu/
Westfield "CP109") is near the western middle of Massachusetts, about 8 miles west of Springfield and the Connecticut River, and about 5 miles west of West Springfield. This location is then real easy to find.
I see the PVRR interchange track's turnout off to the west as Rich noted, which track curves to the north from the CSX's former Boston & Albany main line, which this is, I believe. Right at the western end of the former station appears to be an underpass for the PV's line (formerly NY, New Haven & Hartford, per the SPV Railroad Atlas for the North East U.S.), when it used to cross over the Westfield River and continue south to Farmington (and others) to the city of New Haven. So both that underpass and the interchange turnout may present some challenges to realigning and raising the main line to accomodate the new bridge, depending on fast the track's running speed is wanted to be. Not insurmountable problems - and far easier that thatn having to lower the main line - but it won't be a "slam-dunk", either, esp. with the frequency and importance of both the CSX and Amtrak traffic on that line.
ICG built a new bridge for their two-track main in Rantoul, IL in the 70's, in conjunction with some road construction in that area. They built a shoo-fly and put the new bridge where the old one was. The alignment through Rantoul is arrow-straight.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Rich - Thanks for the description and the photos - until now, I haven't been able to give this the time that I wanted to. Some observations and questions:
1) Since the piers for the new bridge are concrete and are off to the side from the existing track, it looks like the new track will be on a new parallel alignment about 15 to 20 +/- ft. away from the existing track, and then "S-curve" back to the existing track to remain at each end - correct ? Then the old bridge will just be torn down. The former 2nd track's location couldn't be used instead because:
a) The floor cross-beams continue under both tracks - if those were touched, then the other "live" track would be disrupted as well; and,
b) It looks like there's a billboard sticking up between the bridge's beams in the middle of the former track, in the 2nd - 4th photos - really odd-looking in the 3rd (I was wondering what the heck it was ? )
Also, the designers apparently elected not to consider building the new bridge on the side, and then "rolling it into place" of the old one during a short shut-down of the line.
2) Similarly, since the new track will be about 4 ft. higher, then a vertical transition from the existing track up to that level and then back down again will be needed, 1 at each end of the new bridge. That will likely be a couple of back-to-back vertical curves, also in an S-configuration (not that anyone other than a track guy or a surveyor would ever see or notice that detail). Anyway, any sign of preparations for that going on at either end of the bridge ? Might be a little early in the construction process yet for that, though.
3) Or, what you call "Steel fence" in the 2nd photo is actually sheet piling. That could be used to make kind of a temporary retaining wall to keep the higher sub-ballast - the gray stone & dirt stuff that's the ground there to support the new track on its alignment - from sliding down onto the adjoining live track, if I understand the configuration here correctly. So maybe those preparations are under way already.
4) In the 4th photo, the clearance under the far span higher for trucks - looks like that's a "detour" route for them ? Was it lowered or whatever to make it that way ? Any idea why a small pickup truck (or SUV ?) is headed that way at the right edge of the photo ?
5) I'd guess the erection of the steel or concrete main beams and other structural members will start shortly - probably within a month, and completion of the bridge around mid-summer - July or August. Does that sound right to you ? Would be interesting to see more photos of that process as the construction continues !
Thanks for sharing. Look forward to seeing more photos from this location.
Here are some photos of the bridge project.
Steel fence protects track on other side. New roadbed will be on the side you can see.
present bridge which is now single track.
Full view. Trucks go under far span. Cars near span.
Today I stopped and took a look at a CSX/Amtrak bridge replacement project in Westfield MA. The road underneath has been a choke point for many years. Many a trailer truck has peeled back the trailer when the driver missed all the warning signs. A new bridge is being built right along side the present Truss bridge and will be almost four feet higher. I guess the bridge is at least 400 feet long. New road bed is needed on either end. It is quite a project to keep the line open. There is a lot of freight traffic east and west, plus Amtrak comes though a few times a day. Managed to take quite a few pictures from a point in front of the old railroad station.
An interchange turnout for the Pioneer Valley Railroad is a few hundred feet west of the bridge.
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