Trains.com

What is a shoo-fly bridge?

19143 views
37 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    March 2004
  • From: Indianapolis, Indiana
  • 2,434 posts
What is a shoo-fly bridge?
Posted by gabe on Friday, May 6, 2005 3:34 PM
Disclaimer: yes, I googled this. I found some hits, but am still unsatisfied with my knowledge, so I am not being lazy.

Gabe
  • Member since
    April 2005
  • From: Nanaimo BC Canada
  • 4,117 posts
Posted by nanaimo73 on Friday, May 6, 2005 3:40 PM
It would just be a bridge on a shoo-fly , or , a shoo-fly with a bridge .UP can't just put a temporary fill into that creek until the main is repaired.
Dale
  • Member since
    March 2002
  • 9,265 posts
Posted by edblysard on Friday, May 6, 2005 3:42 PM
A shoe-fly is a temporary track laid around a major de-railment where the track structure is so damaged as to need to be completly replaced, often down to the sub roadbed.

This is where panel track pays for itself.

Same for a shoe fly bridge...the bridge is damaged to the point it needs major repair, so they build a temporary bridge.

There will be a slow order for the bridge, the entire length of the train.

The mudchicken can offer more detail, techniques and structural information.


Ed

23 17 46 11

  • Member since
    March 2004
  • From: Indianapolis, Indiana
  • 2,434 posts
Posted by gabe on Friday, May 6, 2005 3:47 PM
So it is not a particular type of bridge, it is a generic term for any temporary bridge put in while the real bridge is being replaced?

Gabe
  • Member since
    April 2005
  • From: Nanaimo BC Canada
  • 4,117 posts
Posted by nanaimo73 on Friday, May 6, 2005 3:50 PM
Yes.
Dale
  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: US
  • 354 posts
Posted by Soo2610 on Friday, May 6, 2005 3:50 PM
It is basically a temporary fill with pipes buried in it to allow the creek to flow while they rebuild the permanent bridge.
  • Member since
    April 2005
  • From: Nanaimo BC Canada
  • 4,117 posts
Posted by nanaimo73 on Friday, May 6, 2005 3:56 PM
That is one type. They could span 100 feet of water if needed.
How long was this UP trestle and how high was it above the water ?
(The destroyed one)
Dale
  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: US
  • 354 posts
Posted by Soo2610 on Friday, May 6, 2005 4:00 PM
If my memory serves me right the bridge was 140 feet long. I don't know what the height was.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 6, 2005 4:03 PM
Gabe, I've always understood a shoo-fly anything to be a temporary structure around a derailment, washout, etc.
Shoo-fly pie, on the other hand, is a Pennsylvania Dutch dessert so sweet your teeth will fall out in your hand. Try taking this recipe http://www.maplesprings.com/shooflyrecipe.html
over to the Diner and ask Cherokee Woman nicely if she would consider adding it to the menu.
Larry
  • Member since
    March 2004
  • From: Indianapolis, Indiana
  • 2,434 posts
Posted by gabe on Friday, May 6, 2005 4:07 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by lfish

Gabe, I've always understood a shoo-fly anything to be a temporary structure around a derailment, washout, etc.
Shoo-fly pie, on the other hand, is a Pennsylvania Dutch dessert so sweet your teeth will fall out in your hand. Try taking this recipe http://www.maplesprings.com/shooflyrecipe.html
over to the Diner and ask Cherokee Woman nicely if she would consider adding it to the menu.
Larry



Thanks Larry.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 6, 2005 4:18 PM
And I guess that after your teeth fall out, then you can go to the dentist and get a shoo-fly bridge.
  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: US
  • 354 posts
Posted by Soo2610 on Friday, May 6, 2005 4:18 PM
Gabe, Read somewhere this morning that the UP expects to have the double track replacement bridge up and running by next Wednesday. That is quick! Just imagine the traffic in Rochelle now that the temporary bridge is operating and they try to clear out the back log of trains.
  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: Louisville,Ky.
  • 5,077 posts
Posted by locomutt on Friday, May 6, 2005 4:40 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by gabe

QUOTE: Originally posted by lfish

Gabe, I've always understood a shoo-fly anything to be a temporary structure around a derailment, washout, etc.
Shoo-fly pie, on the other hand, is a Pennsylvania Dutch dessert so sweet your teeth will fall out in your hand. Try taking this recipe http://www.maplesprings.com/shooflyrecipe.html
over to the Diner and ask Cherokee Woman nicely if she would consider adding it to the menu.
Larry



Thanks Larry.


Gabe,Ifish,Ed,
Your understanding of a "shoo-fly" is about like the one I've known
over the years,a "temporary structure,around whatever."
I am not by any means an expert,but that's what I've seen,read,heard
over the years.
And it Will be available in the 'Diner'.

I have not seen any pictures of the actual derailment/accident,but would
imagine it will take awhile to get things back to 'normal'.
Actually hope mudchicken can enlighten us a little more,I would like
to learn more than I think I already know.

Being Crazy,keeps you from going "INSANE" !! "The light at the end of the tunnel,has been turned off due to budget cuts" NOT AFRAID A Vet., and PROUD OF IT!!

  • Member since
    August 2004
  • 484 posts
Posted by DPD1 on Friday, May 6, 2005 6:41 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73

It would just be a bridge on a shoo-fly , or , a shoo-fly with a bridge .UP can't just put a temporary fill into that creek until the main is repaired.



And not to be confused with a fly-over... :-) Which I think might have been the original meaning somebody was going for when they brought up the new UP one... If that's where the question arose from.

Dave
-DPD Productions - Introducing the NEW TrainTenna LP Directional RR Radio Monitoring Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Denver / La Junta
  • 10,820 posts
Posted by mudchicken on Friday, May 6, 2005 7:17 PM
I think you folks finally got it straightened out. At least I don't have to describe a line change or station equation now.
Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
  • Member since
    September 2002
  • From: Rockton, IL
  • 4,821 posts
Posted by jeaton on Friday, May 6, 2005 8:23 PM
OK

Next question. Origin of the term?

Jay

"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 6, 2005 8:57 PM
I was wondering about the origin too.

I've seen several arial photos of the wreck. It was an older, double track, through truss bridge. When the pile up began, several cars piled up inside the bridge, then they began to pile up against the bridge. Tore out several girders on the truss and knocked the end off the end abutment that supports it. One end of the bridge partially dropped down toward the river. The rails were about 12 feet above the water when the bridge was in good repair. The cars accordianed up, perpendicular to the track. I can't imagine the bang it made. UP had the shoo-fly running by about 6 pm last night and had about 25 trains over it by around 10 am today. They're driving pilings today and expect to have the concrete poured for the first bridge by end of day Sun and the 2nd bridge by end of day Weds.
  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Traveling in Middle Earth
  • 795 posts
Posted by Sterling1 on Friday, May 6, 2005 10:26 PM
Anyone know of websites of the pictures of this bridge rebuild or pile up?

Matt
"There is nothing in life that compares with running a locomotive at 80-plus mph with the windows open, the traction motors screaming, the air horns fighting the rush of incoming air to make any sound at all, automobiles on adjacent highways trying and failing to catch up with you, and the unmistakable presence of raw power. You ride with fear in the pit of your stomach knowing you do not really have control of this beast." - D.C. Battle [Trains 10/2002 issue, p74.]
  • Member since
    April 2005
  • From: Nanaimo BC Canada
  • 4,117 posts
Posted by nanaimo73 on Saturday, May 7, 2005 2:19 AM
Jeaton ;
The term shoo-fly is not explained in the 8/83 Trains or 1/91 CTC Board articles.
Does anyone out there have the 1/02 Mainline Modeler or the5,6/82 Prototype Modeler magazines ? If you really want to know , e-mail the editor at Trains.
Dale
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Austin TX
  • 4,941 posts
Posted by spbed on Saturday, May 7, 2005 8:03 AM
OK so they place culverts 1st at the creeks bottom then bring dirt in pour the dirt over the culverts to fill in the gap. Correct? Then after putting up a real bridge they will take the "shoo" fly bridge away. Correct again? [:p][:)][:o)]

Originally posted by Soo2610

Living nearby to MP 186 of the UPRR  Austin TX Sub

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • From: Near Promentory UT
  • 1,590 posts
Posted by dldance on Saturday, May 7, 2005 8:14 AM
shoo-fly bridges are most commonly used when a main line bridge needs to be completely replaced. I saw one in Idaho Falls used for that reason. The abutments and main supports were made from ties stacked Lincoln-Log style and the deck was a heavy duty flatcar minus trucks. It was in use for about 3 months as I recall.

dd
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 7, 2005 8:41 AM
They dropped in 5 culverts of 100" each. They then covered that with ballast (saw one of the ballast trains on the Rochelle webcam. I believe they said it would take 36,000 tons of ballast because they have to actually build over 1/2 mile of track for the shoo-fly and approaches.
  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: US
  • 1,537 posts
Posted by jchnhtfd on Saturday, May 7, 2005 8:34 PM
Nobody's answered Jay's question, which I've always wondered about, too -- where'd the term come from?! I've used it often enough, and understand what it means, and all that -- but where'd it come from?
Jamie
  • Member since
    April 2005
  • From: Nanaimo BC Canada
  • 4,117 posts
Posted by nanaimo73 on Saturday, May 7, 2005 8:48 PM
What time is it in Iraq? Does our leader get weekends off?
Dale
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Northern New York
  • 25,008 posts
Posted by tree68 on Saturday, May 7, 2005 10:16 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by dldance

shoo-fly bridges are most commonly used when a main line bridge needs to be completely replaced. I saw one in Idaho Falls used for that reason. The abutments and main supports were made from ties stacked Lincoln-Log style and the deck was a heavy duty flatcar minus trucks. It was in use for about 3 months as I recall.
dd

IC did the same thing on the double track main in Rantoul, IL in the 70's. It was longer than 3 months, though. I think they built something more substantial than stacked ties and a flatcar, however.

LarryWhistling
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...

  • Member since
    June 2001
  • From: US
  • 13,488 posts
Posted by Mookie on Monday, May 9, 2005 6:42 AM
According to my dictionary - a Shoefly is the bridge. A Shoofly is a detective - like Cinder-***. Or an old child's rocker with a seat between two animal cutouts. You place the child in the seat and they won't fall out.

Nothing found on where it started.

She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw

  • Member since
    April 2005
  • From: Nanaimo BC Canada
  • 4,117 posts
Posted by nanaimo73 on Monday, May 9, 2005 1:02 PM

The Oxford English Dictionary reports the first RR usage as being in the NY Evening Post in 1905 which reported the SP was almost finished it's shoo-fly around submerged tracks.(I think that was probably dealing with the Colorado River forming the Salton Sea.) Baseball players were saying shoo-fly when they missed a pitch in the late 1800s. The term was widely used by rural Americans in the 1800s when they were shooing flys away, particulary around livstock.
Dale
  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: US
  • 1,537 posts
Posted by jchnhtfd on Monday, May 9, 2005 1:13 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73

First of all, I don't think UP has a bridge here. Burried culverts are "bridging" the creek but I wouldn't call it a bridge.
The Oxford English Dictionary reports the first RR usage as being in the NY Evening Post in 1905 which reported the SP was almost finished it's shoo-fly around submerged tracks.(I think that was probably dealing with the Colorado River forming the Salton Sea.) Baseball players were saying shoo-fly when they missed a pitch in the late 1800s. The term was widely used by rural Americans in the 1800s when they were shooing flys away, particulary around livstock.

English is weird...[:D]
Jamie
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Denver / La Junta
  • 10,820 posts
Posted by mudchicken on Monday, May 9, 2005 5:27 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73

First of all, I don't think UP has a bridge here. Burried culverts are "bridging" the creek but I wouldn't call it a bridge.
The Oxford English Dictionary reports the first RR usage as being in the NY Evening Post in 1905 which reported the SP was almost finished it's shoo-fly around submerged tracks.(I think that was probably dealing with the Colorado River forming the Salton Sea.) Baseball players were saying shoo-fly when they missed a pitch in the late 1800s. The term was widely used by rural Americans in the 1800s when they were shooing flys away, particulary around livstock.


You may not call it a bridge, but the railroad does. If it carries local surface drainage under the track or carries another mode of transportation separate from the railroad at grade, IT IS A BRIDGE.

A raised structure made of wood, stone, brick, concrete, iron or steel linking two opposite sides without disturbing or making contact with the ROADWAY, body of water, obstacle or depression beneath it.

-Simmons Boardman Dictionary of Railway Track terms Copyright 1990 Page 17
Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
  • Member since
    February 2012
  • 257 posts
Posted by nobullchitbids on Monday, May 9, 2005 7:40 PM
I, too, always have seen it as "shoefly," not "shoofly." Maybe that is why no one can find its earliest appearance.

My GUESS is that it has something to do with building something "on the fly" -- a temporary, "make-do" structure to get the railroad by until a permanent repair can be completed.

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy