I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the Forth bridge in Britain. Here is the approach from an engineers view:
A night view of this spectacular structure:
I'm not sure where this bridge is, but seeing it under construction shows just how amazing the bridge engineers and builders are:
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Here is a video of modern bridge construction techniques. I'm not sure if any of these are railway bridges, but it is still interesting to watch them defy gravity!
Good morning Diners. Tea and toast please, Flo.
A few days of rain and strong winds.
Lovely pictures of Forth Rail Bridge, Dave.
Today I have chosen the Royal Albert Bridge, which links Devon and Cornwall.
What has become symbolic in the world of both railways, engineering and the UK as a whole is Isambard Kingdom Brunel's famous Royal Albert Bridge, the gateway to Cornwall. Built in 1859, the cantilever structure was built to carry the Great Western Railway across the River Tamar at Plymouth, finally bridging the gap between the two counties and allowing the railway to proceed west into the heart of the rural Cornish countryside without having to make a lengthy diversion to the north like the London and South Western Railway. Crossing the river at an altitude of 100 feet, the bridge provides passengers with panoramic views of both counties.
70000 'Britannia' crossing the bridge.
The Tamar Bridges Through Time.
The Diners missing, a speedy recovery to whatever challenges. May you return soon.
Thoughts & Peace to All who Require.
David
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Good morning diners. Flo, I'm hungry but indecisive. Surprise me.
My oldest had another follow-up with the surgeon this week. Not much healing progress, but there is a little. Repacking of the incision continues for at least another 2 weeks. We had homecoming rehearsal the other night. Pretty straightforward, but one MAJOR annoyance was that they want the court members to go through the homecoming parade with each pair riding in convertibles. The school does not have a list of people that can help. You have to find your own convertible. They are not exactly common. Certainly less so now than in years past, and in a small town in northern Michigan to boot. My wife was in a panic. I suggested the fix was to put a couple chairs in the bed of my pickup for them and I'll drive them through the parade in that. A truck-vertible! For some reason I wasn't taken seriously. My wife put a request out to all of our friends and coworkers on facebook and word started to spread. An acquaintance of ours contacted us and said her dad has a convertible 65 mustang she can get and will drive our daughter. Truly blessed.
This little offset swing bridge is in Manistee MI. Still in use, and still has to open regularly to let freighters through the river.
Mike
Good Morning Diners,
One last Chicago bridge for your dining pleasure.
To me, it is the most fascinating of all the Chicago bridges.
Back in the 1890s, a series of swing bridges spanned the South Branch of the Chicago River in downtown Chicago. But, the center spans of these bridges blocked passage in the center of the river. So, in the early 1900s, these swing bridges were replaced by lift bridges.
The railroad bridge no longer exists, but back in the early 1900s, it ran diagonally across the South Branch of the Chicago River between Taylor Street and Roosevelt. The bridge was constructed on a southwest to northeast angle, serving the former Grand Central Station on the east side of the river.
Several railroads, including the B&O and Soo Line, used the diagonal bridge initially owned by the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railway Company (CTT). In 1910 the Baltimore & Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (BOCT) was created to purchase the CTT upon foreclosure, giving the B&O control of both the terminal railway system as well as Grand Central Station.
This bridge was rare because it was a double leaf railroad Scherzer rolling lift bridge. The bridge was replaced by another Strauss bridge, a bascule bridge, near 16th Street when the river was straightened in 1929.
When the diagonal lift bridge was operational, trains using Grand Central Station accessed the station from the west side of the river. After the river was straightened in 1929, trains using Grand Central Station accessed the station by crossing the newly installed BOCT bascule bridge and traveling on the east side of the river to reach the station.
The first photo is of the long ago demolished diagonal railroad bridge.
Source: chicagology.com
The second photo is an overall scene of the South Branch of the Chicago River during the straightening project in 1929.
If you squint, you can see the diagonal bridge in the top center of the photo. The bend in the river is still obvious in this photo. A large volume of landfill was eventually dumped into the site of the bend an used for rail yards. To the left of the bend in the river and the railyards, you can see where the river straightening is taking place.
You can also see the St. Charles Air Line (SCAL) bascule bridge at the bottom of the river bend. This bascule bridge was moved to the left (west) to span the straightened portion of the river, and the BOCT bascule bridge was installed next to it on the north side of the SCAL bridge.
Sources: connectingthewindycity.com and Chicago Tribune
If I have managed to hold your interest thus far, here is a photo of "completed" project, although there still was a fair amount of work to still be done. The photo does show completion of the straightening of the river and the new BOCT bascule bridge in place. The SCAL bascule bridge has yet to be moved to its new position.
I cannot resist, but I promise that this is the last photo of the diagonal bridge.
After I added this post earlier this morning, I started searching for a photo of the area before the river straightening project began. I consider this a rare photo because it is the first time that I have found such an early photo of the site.
You can clearly see the diagonal bridge near the top of the photo as well as the bascule bridge near the bottom of the photo. The bend in the river is obvious as well.
If you look across the top of the photo from left to right, you can make out the train sheds at Grand Central Station, LaSalle Street Station and Dearborn Station. At Dearborn Station, you can make out several white puffs of smoke from steam engines.
Rich
Source: Chicago Maritime Museum
Alton Junction
Good morning, diners. Black coffee this morning, please.
Mike, have fun with the homecoming parade. You can be proud of your daughter for the honor of being selected.
Some neighbors came by last night with their preschool son to take orders on a school fundraiser. We let the four-year-old see the layout and run a train for a while. He was in heaven. The kid loves trains. They had just returned from Omaha. They spent a night at Two Rivers State Park where UP has cabooses that you can stay in. The boy is in love with trains.
When the Chicago and North Western ran across the state on the old Cowboy Line, they used one of the tallest bridges in the state to cross the Niobrara River. Today, the Cowboy Trail uses the bridge.
Before I retired, I took some graduating students each year on a canoeing-camping trip on the Niobrara. We went up on the bridge for a good view. It was a cold day to be canoeing:
Hopefully everyone has a good healthy day today. Love the bridges.
York1 John
Illinois Central bridge over the Ohio River at Cairo being replaced. sometime in the 50's
moelarrycurly4, that is one great set of photos.
richhotrainmoelarrycurly4, that is one great set of photos.
Agreed, MLC, that's a pretty neat set of pictures of the bridge construction.
Good Afternoon,
Another summer like day here but it is supposed to end tomorrow.
Another day without Track Fiddler. If anyone knows his actual name and phone number I would call him if you send me a PM. Even if you just know his name and city, I can try to trace it.
We had a Piliated woodpecker in our yard again today, eating at a suet log and drinking from the pond. This is the second day it has appeared, a young female.
Not much happening in my world. Cleaning leaves out of evestroughs, out of the pond, on the grass, etc.
I'm enjoying the bridge photos.
CN Charlie
GMTRacingWelcome back Sparky. The Steaming Tender in Palmer Mass is similar as it is on the main line into Boston and sees a lot of traffic past the old station now converted to a restaurant.
Thanks GMT
I just looked at their website. Looks like a great place for a nice dinner, and neat that they show the train schedules.
Ed, Dave, David, Mike, Rich, and MLC ...... Thanks for posting all of your great photos of brdges.
Below is the Santa Fe Railway Canyon Diablo Brdge in Arizona. (Double Track)
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Here is another double bascule bridge, this time in India. It was built in 1914 by the British:
This bridge is in Zimbabwe and Namibia close to Victoria Falls:
This wonderful Victorian era railway viaduct is in Berwick, England:
This is not a railway bridge, but it is interesting because it dates from 1624:
Good morning Diners. The usual tea and toast please, Chloe.
Excellent bridges being posted by everyone.
Dave. The bridge at Berwick on Tweed is The Royal Border Bridge. https://www.networkrail.co.uk/who-we-are/our-history/iconic-infrastructure/the-history-of-the-royal-border-bridge-berwick/
Colne Valley Viaduct -- Building U.K.s longest railway bridge.
A short clip of the Bedlington Railway Viaduct (or the Black Bridge, Kitty Brewster Viaduct as its also called) In Bedlington, Northumberland. The first railway bridge from the river mouth, like the similar bridge over the Wansbeck, known as The Black Bridge. The railways in the Northumberland coalfield had developed from the early wagonways transporting coal to the rivers for onward shipment. The Bedlington Coal Company built the first Bedlington Viaduct in June 1850 at a cost of £26,000 as part of its line from Newsham to Bedlington. It was a timber trestle bridge designed by Robert Nicholson, 80 feet high and 770 feet long and it crossed the river between Bebside and Bedlington. In 1855 the Blyth and Tyne Railway bought the Newsham to Bedlington line and constructed a single line onwards to Morpeth via Choppington and Hepscott and eventually to Ashington and Newbiggin with the building of the Wansbeck Viaduct
Good Morning All,
I'll have a regular and two eggs over medium with rye toast please Zoe.
Love the bridge pictures. If it works, this is a picture of the Poughkipsee bridge over the Hudson. It was the main rail link from the Midwest and West to New England for the New Haven though it was first operated by the Philadelphia, Reading and New England which later became the Central New England. It was absorbed by the New Haven in I think 1904. At the height of WWII over 3500 rail cars passed over it daily. It is now a walkway over the Hudson River.
dominantrailroadbridgefirepj02dd.jpg20080814 by J.R. Mitchell, on Flickr" alt="" />
The picture is of a fire on the bridge during Conrails tenure which closed the bridge for good. Prior to that it had been single tracked with a 12mph speed limit as the 1890 construction even after upgrades was not up to later consist weights. It also was verboten to apply the brakes on the bridge as it would tear the rails off the ties and bow the rail in front of the train.
All for now, duty beckons. Cheers, J.R.
We moved here over two years ago. Since then, my layout has been in pieces. I just haven't had any motivation.
This week, we had a community-wide conversion from propane to natural gas. So, we had to clean up the garage so they could swap out the old water heater tank for a new tankless heater. The biggest piece of stuff in the garage was the original 5x12 foot section of my layout. Since it was all Code 100 and really only the subway was left, I decided to salvage turnout motors, the turntable and any electronics and throw out the rest. I dismantled and saved the bench work.
Farewell to my HO layout. It expanded and generally got better. I hope now I'll get excited again as cooler weather gets here.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
A cloudy day here with a few showers.
Dave, nice pic of the bridge iver the Zambezie river by Victoria Falls. I watched a girl bungie jump off it when we visited the falls a few years ago. She bounced up and down several times, They run a dinner train that stops on the bridge while you eat. My wife said she would go if I wanted but I'm not comfortable with heights. We visited the Falls on our last trip in 2019 but saw them from a helicopter and watched the dinner train from the porch at the Vic Falls Hotel while we ate our dinner.
I have put together more N scale stuff to sell, the RDC and some rolling stock. I might sell the DW&P RS11 too. I enjoyed building the layout but find N isn't for me.
Modeltrainstuff weighs in on bridges between MD and PA
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Re GMT's post on the Poughkeepsie Bridge...
The fire was in May 1974, during the Penn Central era. Conrail didn't come along for about two years afterward.
Some said the fire was set because PC wanted to be rid of the crossing. I never fully signed onto that, but I recall being told that PC abolished the "bridge walker" position (fellow who kept an eye on the bridge) not long before this happened. Had he still been working, the fire may have never gotten out-of-hand as it did.
I never got to run over the bridge, but have been right up to the east end of it with an engine, back when Conrail still serviced customers in Poughkeepsie. That's all gone now.
Running freight on the Hudson line below, I'd look up and think, "how could that hold up a full-sized freight train?"...
A dry, cloudy day here in the UK.
Victoria Viaduct, Fatfield, Washington, Tyne & Wear. U.K.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Viaduct
There is talk of re-opening the line for freight trains freeing up the congestion on the East Coast Main Line.
Not only 'grand bridges'.
Further up the now disused Leamside Railway Line a small railway bridge at Bournmoor/Fencehouses.
A fine miscellany of bridges, and not at all boring!
Heartland Division CB&Q I wonder if Bear has been on the NZ bridge.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Good morning, everyone. Black coffee, please. Just bring the whole pot of coffee and I'll take care of it.
It's another trip out of town later today. I wish the kids and grandkids lived a little closer.
This time of year, I wish the trees would all agree with each other on when to drop the leaves. The three big ash trees have almost all lost all the leaves already. The three maple trees will be next, but they haven't even turned color yet. Finally, the worst, the five big red oaks and the two pin oaks will lose their leaves over a period of a month or two. There will often be oak leaves on top of the snow in December. I love trees, but I wish I wasn't a cheap skate. If I didn't want to hold onto money so much, I would hire someone else to get the leaves.
In 1979, my new wife and I rode the last Southern RR's Crescent. On the way home, it crossed the east end of Lake Ponchartrain on this 5.8 mile (9.3km) bridge. You can't really see the bridge from the train.
I believe this is one of the longest railroad bridges in the U.S., and at one time it was the longest over-water railroad bridge in the world. It may still be, but I don't know that for sure.
Have a good day, everyone. I will try to check in once we get to our destination.
Hello Railfans!
Top of the day to yas! Hope everyone is well. We all fine over this way. Figured Id stop by and says howdy to yall for a moment. Howdy!
Been liking this months theme so far. Specially this one....
Looks like a big splash about to happen.
This one on the other hand.....
um, thats a lake????? Can you imagine the maintenance inspection on this one?
Lastly...
and air traffic controllers think their job is demanding/hectic - HA! Awesome pics of Chi-town.
A#1 North!
Douglas
I'll just have a regular to go please Chloe.
Old Engine - you are correct, my mistake. Penn Central was in charge at the time of the fire and I'm told the water barrels had been removed or emptied as well so the fire was well established before it was found. When I was more active at the museum I knew an engineer who had been back and forth over the bridge for years and yes it was shakey. He had actually had a brake hose part on the bridge and the resulting self actuation pushed the rail up in front of his locomotive. Considering the bridge was built before 1900 I was surprised it lasted as long as it did even considering it was mild steel and not iron on the main spans.
Bear - we had a day to do the touristy thing and just went for as long a trip as was offered in 2017. As it was, we only had two or three days between race meetings as the containers were transported from site to site. We made the most of it. I thought Dunedin was the nicest city we visited there, almost European in feel and the hint of Scotland in the language was charming as well. New Zealand became my second favourite place on earth next to home.
Came in today to get a chassis finished up and I best get back to it. Cheers, J.R.
And under the world is a beautiful place heading, is three views taken in the area. I’m not sure why York1John has the very mistaken view that I’m driving on the wrong side of the road!!
I forgot to allow for the fact that you're south of the Equator and everything is opposite there!
Good afternoon from the beautiful Westside.
I have just spent four or five good long days in the trainroom building structures, ballasting, and running trains. It feels good to get to spend that kind of time on it. I am currently building a Kanamodels coaling tower.
Picked my daughter up at the ferry yesterday, she is home for Thanksgiving.
We are having family over for the big dinner tomorrow, it is the first time in 22 months that has happened. Hopefully, Christmas will be on again as we usually have 20+ for Christmas dinner. The wife can try her new Kitchen out.
Talking about driving on the left side of the road, I have done it plenty of times and never thought anything of it. The fact that the steering wheel is also on the right makes the brain kind of adapt without much problem. At least that is my theory and I am sticking to it.
Seeing all these bridges is pretty cool. Asia has some really impressive ones and if I get around to it I'll dig some pics up.
Wife is at a dog show for three days this weekend. She comes home every night and is quite tired when she gets here. Tomorrow she will race home and get the turkey dinner going. I will do what she wants me to do to help but that is not usually much. She will agree I am a pretty good cook but she prefers to do it all herself. Her Dad was a well-known executive chef and she sure got his cookin genes.
I wholeheartedly agree with JR about New Zealand. I often think about how I would move there if I was young again. Of course, if Elon Musk finds a new planet that is nice I am out of here. I looked at the criteria for those that he said he would be taking with him and I fit the bill.
Speaking of Bill, William Shatner is heading to space on Tuesday morning, I will make sure I am up for the flight. Hope it goes well. He did an interview I saw that was pretty good. I know there are lots of Star Trek fans on the forum so here it is.
I need to go and get the dining room ready for tomorrow. It has been my war room while I have been working on this Estate that has consumed the last 20 months of my life. Things have wound down on that front enough that I moved back into my office. I have looked after Estates and been Executor for others, but this one is a doozy. The amount of money I have spent on lawyers and accountants on both sides of the border is mind-numbing. I have the utmost respect for both professions, it is not until you need them that you realize the extent of their knowledge and realize how much you don't know.
I did a fitness test that a sports medicine Doctor friend sent me. I did in excess of 400 watts on the bike for 44 minutes, I was soaking wet after that. I did 50 pushups and 50 situps in under three minutes for each, that was easy along with a few other weird things. I decided to take the next four days off after it all that. I sure ate a lot that night as I had burned a ton of calories.
Time to go glue something else to the coaling tower.
All the best to all.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
That's a lot of steel just to hold up two, tiny RDCs:
RDC's Over Moodna by Doug Lilly, on Flickr
By contrast, this thing looks like it was cobbled together from what was left over after cleaning out a box car:
Crossing Turtle Creek by Mike Danneman, on Flickr
I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.
Regards, Ed
Howdy ..
Dave, David, JR, Henry, Bear, John York 1, Douglas, and Ed .... Thanks for posting all of the photos and videos of bridges, etc. ... Very interesting !
Brent .... Good to see progess on your coaling tower project. That last photo of tanks on a flat car in the snow is interesting.
Everybody ..... Have a nice evening.