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World's Toughest Railroad Bridge/Take a Little Off the Top

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World's Toughest Railroad Bridge/Take a Little Off the Top
Posted by maxman on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 12:14 PM

A friend sent me this video link showing what proports to be the world's toughest bridge in operation.

Take a little off the top, anyone?

http://www.flixxy.com/worlds-toughest-bridge.htm

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Posted by G Paine on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 12:27 PM

OUCH!!!!! Good for the bridge everything that was shown hitting it was just sheet metal and a few A/C units. WHen I was working in the middle east, I arrived at an accident where a large 10 ton forklift on a flatbed trailer hit a highway overpass. The impact tore the mast off the forklift and threw it off the trailer onto the road. The concrete bridge also needed repairs as well. Fortunately, no injuries.

George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch 

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Posted by BroadwayLion on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 12:31 PM

The bridge at this location has a crash bar in front of it. These trucks do not actually touch the bridge itself.

Railroad is SMART. Truck drivers are DUMB. Insurance does not cover collision with the overhead.

ROAR

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Posted by Motley on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 1:29 PM

That should buff out.  LOL

 I guess the flashing lights and big warning sign doesn't mean anything for these truckers. 

Michael


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Posted by jeffrey-wimberly on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 1:37 PM

That's like a bridge on hwy 171 in Leesville that's at the 13' 6" line. It's taken a heavy toll of the years. Semi trailers, skidders, front end loaders, mobile homes, etc. The bridge is a railway plate girder type built in the 30's and is still in use by the KCS today.

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Posted by richhotrain on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 1:54 PM

Somewhere early on in that 2:49 minute video, I lost track of the number of morons who disregarded the signs and the lights.

Rich

Alton Junction

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Posted by rdgk1se3019 on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 2:08 PM

There used to be a railroad bridge in place in my old hometown of Birdsboro PA.

Had a 10' high clearance that was along the PRR Schuylkill division that ran thru the middle of town.............many trucks have tried to take it down DunceOops.......and all have failed Smile, Wink & GrinLaugh

Sometime in the late 80`s or early 90`s it finally removed.

Dennis Blank Jr.

CEO,COO,CFO,CMO,Bossman,Slavedriver,Engineer,Trackforeman,Grunt. Birdsboro & Reading Railroad

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Posted by georgev on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 3:27 PM

Might make for an interesting scene to model....

George V.

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Posted by g&gfan on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 6:45 PM

That happens occasionally in Cambridge, ON. Some unsuspecting driver hits the CPR bridge on Water Street and his load ends up on the street. The last one I remember involved a forklift falling onto the street after being knocked off the truck by the bridge.

My brother works for a company that ships forestry equipment by tractor-trailer. They will ask for a clearance route from the MTO, the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario. Whenever the route comes back saying to use Water St., former Hwy. 24, in Cambridge; they tell the Ministry to find an alternate route as the machinery will not clear the CPR bridge.

Apparently since the bridge is private property, the railway's, it is not listed on the MTO's clearance sheets. Even though it crosses one of its highways or former highway. Government bureaucracy at its finest.

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Posted by CTValleyRR on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 7:17 PM

jeffrey-wimberly

That's like a bridge on hwy 171 in Leesville that's at the 13' 6" line. It's taken a heavy toll of the years. Semi trailers, skidders, front end loaders, mobile homes, etc. The bridge is a railway plate girder type built in the 30's and is still in use by the KCS today.

Hey!  I know that bridge.  You can add to your list of casualties one pallet of equipment (fortunately not ammo) off of the back of a 5T 6.x6 driven by one of my yutz support drivers.

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Posted by jmbjmb on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 10:30 PM

When I was stationed in CA, there was a bridge just off base that carried a freeway over another.  One day a crane was passing under.  Now  here's the thing.  The crane was under the size limit for the bridge and should fit under.  In fact it did coming on to the base. 

Buuuutttt ... (there's always a but)

On the way out, he happened to bounce on a pothole.  Well, it seems there's this little geometry thing that a little bounce at the cab made a big swing at the end of the boom.  Yep, wrapped that boom up into the bridge between the girders.  Bridge was out of action for a while.

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Posted by miniwyo on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 11:26 PM

Some years ago in Interstate 80 a winch truck hauling a 210bbl tank was going under the bridge and he would have fit, until he stopped and put air in his tires. The bridge was out of service for emergency repairs for a month or so, and it is due to be replaced next summer.

RJ

"Something hidden, Go and find it. Go and look behind the ranges, Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go." The Explorers - Rudyard Kipling

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Posted by MisterBeasley on Wednesday, November 7, 2012 7:50 AM

g&gfan
That happens occasionally in Cambridge, ON.

And, by coincidence, in Cambridge, MA.  Memorial Drive has an underpass under Mass. Ave., with a low clearance.  Trucks are prohibited on Memorial Drive, but, well, there are a lot of college students who drive through town in rental trucks.  Several of them get stuck under that bridge every year.

We also had an incident a few years back out on Route 128.  A truck in the right lane clipped a highway bridge.  This is a full four-lane road, with normal height limitations, and the truck was within the limits.  However, over the years, re-paving over the same roadway without grinding down the existing pavement had raised the height of the road several inches, and they hadn't accounted for that.  Again....

g&gfan
Government bureaucracy at its finest.

 

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

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Posted by last mountain & eastern hogger on Wednesday, November 7, 2012 4:11 PM

MisterBeasley

However, over the years, re-paving over the same roadway without grinding down the existing pavement had raised the height of the road several inches, and they hadn't accounted for that.  Again....

g&gfan
Government bureaucracy at its finest.

 

Whistling

In my professional driving I have encountered a number of circumstances as mentioned,  (more pavement, reducing clearance but don't change signage)   One, I remember being  in Chicago heights,>>>*<<<

It just about got me, but I was able to dump the air off my rear suspension which dropped the load by 5" and that gave me a little daylight.     Confused

Johnboy out..............................

from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North.. 

We have met the enemy,  and he is us............ (Pogo)

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Posted by alexstan on Wednesday, November 7, 2012 5:49 PM
It's a wonder the bridge is still standing!

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Posted by oo-OO-OO-oo on Wednesday, November 7, 2012 9:25 PM

There's a masonry bridge where the PRR Trenton Cutoff crosses a local road in Southeastern Pa.

I heard a story about an auto carrier driver who was taking a load of Cadillacs to a dealer and decided to change his normal delivery sequence.

Instead of delivering cars on top of the carrier, he unloaded a few from the lower racks.

Then he went under the bridge, which he's always cleared with a full load before.

Unfortunately, with the lighter trailer, it rode just a little bit higher ...

I wish I was a headlight

On a northbound train

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Posted by riogrande5761 on Wednesday, November 7, 2012 9:42 PM

I think the people getting the last laugh are those who build the bridge just a little too low.  Then they set up that camera and recorded all those schmucks driving under the bridge, and set it up for a party night with beer and pretzels.  It looks like a lot of drivers, dumb or not ended up a little poorer or fired because if this cute stunt of a bridge!

I did get a laugh out of watching one after the other trucks buses and what not fall for this low bridge - it would be interesting to see the tally of the loss in dollars chaulked up by that low bridge!

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Posted by sschnabl on Thursday, November 8, 2012 12:34 PM

I shared this video with some co-workers yesterday.  One of them said a smart business person would put up a billboard sign for a towing service and body shop just on the other side of the bridge...

Scott

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Posted by rdgk1se3019 on Thursday, November 8, 2012 10:00 PM

I`m beginning to wonder if the height signs are miss labeled.

Dennis Blank Jr.

CEO,COO,CFO,CMO,Bossman,Slavedriver,Engineer,Trackforeman,Grunt. Birdsboro & Reading Railroad

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Posted by caldreamer on Saturday, November 10, 2012 7:12 AM

In Chambersburg, Pa the old Pennsylvania Railroad "high line" which is a triple track reinformced concrete arch that runs under Queen Street (US 30 east bound)..  It is the main ex PRR, CR, now NS mainline north tinto Harrisburg, PA and was built in the early 1900's.  Many a truck whose drivers did not read the signs and head the warning lights got either the top of there trailers wiped out or got stuck when they hit the concrete top.  They have since lowered the street to add extra clearance under the bridge. 

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