Susquehana Swing Bridge

[BigDaddy]

I have no idea why they opened it.  The Navy used to have a base and destroyers had to navigate up river.  It's said to open 1/2 dozen times a year.  Enjoy.

[gmpullman]

It looks like the track crew had to drive out locking plates (0:50)

My guess is that the bridge had to be opened to allow that sloop to pass. It looks like that mast is just a wee bit higher than the clearance (1:57). There are often agreements where the railroad HAS to allow navigation to pass. Usually a condition of getting the rights to build the bridge over a navigable waterway.

I know of a drawbridge along the New York Central's Hudson line where eight sections of rail have to be removed in order to open the bridge. Given proper notice, the railroad has to comply.

I'd sure like to see the arrangement for the catenary "connection". I'm willing to bet the power director had to kill the juice for this particular, infrequent bridge opening, although in other places they can probably leave the wire hot.

Neat Stuff... Ed

 

[CentralGulf]

A wee bit higher is one way to put it, but going under a bridge that the mast just clears is always risky. All it takes is the wake of one jerk to drive your mast up into the bridge causing serious damage, or even a dismasting. I knew one boat owner who had exactly that happen.

You always want plenty of clearance. (Or an open bridge)

 CG

 

 

[OT Dean]

Interesting.  I've never seen a real bridge of any kind opening.  But can someone tell me why I can't view video clips in Full Screen on the Forum?  When I click on it a box pops up and tells me my browser doesn't support Full Screen--and that's nonsense, since my next step after the Forum every night is YouTube and i have no trouble viewing anything in Full Screen.

Deano

[gmpullman]

CentralGulf

A wee bit higher is one way to put it, but going under a bridge that the mast just clears is always risky.

According to the YouTube dialog...

Low Tide clearance = 50 feet.

Height of mast = 60 feet.

Open the bridge, please.

Never a dull moment—Ed

My browser is the same way, full screen not allowed. I just copy/paste the subject and search YouTube.

If you click on "Learn More": (I believe option 2 is the case)

Other reasons fullscreen is disabled

Fullscreen may also be disabled in the following cases:

• Your browser may not support fullscreen.
• The owner of the website who has embedded a YouTube player has disabled fullscreen.

[BigDaddy]

I was distracted by state of Michigan and Pennsylvania.  Yeah the mast is that high.  My advice is to never live on the other side of a draw bridge. 

For a Youtube vid posted in a thread like this, click on the title of the video, in the video box, and a new Youtube tab should open in your browser and you can go full screen and Hi Definition in that window, without losing your place in the forum.

[CentralGulf]

I had a bridge tender drop a lift bridge on me. I saw it just in time.

All the opening railroad bridges that I have come across by boat were left open until a train came along. When the train tripped a track circuit on approach to the bridge, the bridge tender was supposed to check and make sure there were no vessels transiting the area. When and if it was clear, he was supposed to sound a warning horn, then start lowering or closing the bridge.

At all times, the bridge tender is supposed to keep a sharp eye out for trouble while monitoring his marine radio. He didn't do any of that.

I was motoring along at 6 knots with about a 2 knot fair current giving me roughly 8 knots over the bottom (about 10 mph). I was singlehanding a 30,000 lb 35' center cockpit sloop with a 49' mast. There was no other boat traffic in sight.

When the bridge came into view, I put the binoculars on it and checked to make sure it was fully up and not moving. I just kept motoring along with no problems. Just about 100 feet before I got to the bridge, it started coming down with absolutely no warning.

I immediately gave her full left rudder and managed to turn fully into the current with only about 30 feet to spare, which is not nearly enough that close to a lift bridge. My fair current immediately became a foul current and progess away from that damn bridge was agonizing slow.

Once I managed to claw my way back up the canal far enough to no longer feel abject terrror, I called the bridge on the radio. Despite repeated calls, he never answered.

I kept the boat pointed into the current, cut the throttle back far enough to keep myself more or less in the same position and waited for the train. And waited, and waited, and waited.

After at least a half an hour of that, while I was contemplating anchoring and climbing up there with a bronze winch handle in hand to "address" the problem, the train showed up. It was a very slow doodlebug stuffed with railfans. They waved. I "saluted."

One the doodlebug passed, the bridge went back up without a word from the bridge tender. I continued on and stopped at the first place I could find and phoned the Coast Guard. They took a report, but I never heard anything back from anyone.

CG

 

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

I live very close to this bridge and travel near it almost daily. Opening it requires the rails to actually be removed over the joints, as AMTRAK operates at moderately high speeds and the rails are now bolted, not just locked by traditional moving bridge locking systems. It truely is a major event, and recently I think it is even less than 6 times a year.

A study is underway to determine the best way to replace the aging bridge.......

Sheldon

 

[Great Western]

OT Dean

Interesting.  I've never seen a real bridge of any kind opening.  But can someone tell me why I can't view video clips in Full Screen on the Forum?  When I click on it a box pops up and tells me my browser doesn't support Full Screen--and that's nonsense, since my next step after the Forum every night is YouTube and i have no trouble viewing anything in Full Screen.

Deano

 

There are a couple of swing bridges in Milwaukee Wis. Deano.  Maps will show them on the Milwaukee and Kinnikinnic Rivers close to the port of Milwaukee.

These are a fairly easy model I think and I am sure there are many, many more small swing and bascule bridges in the United Sates that could be modeled.

I was able to model a wooden covered bridge (for my garden railway) on the views I saw of a lovely, still extant, covered bridge in Cedarburg, Wis.

Get the maps to take you to street level and it is surprising what you can see. 

[CentralGulf]

http://www.dartmouthrailriver.co.uk

Nice video. What a gorgeous curved stone viaduct. The elves aren't bad either.

CG

[steemtrayn]

The former New Haven bridge at Norwalk, CT. gives Metro North fits every time they open it. It's a four-track swing bridge, and when you look at the insides of the trusswork, it looks like it is made of nothing but rust. It was suggested that the railroad should just buy the marina upriver and close it, thus eliminating the need for further openings.