High winds trigger avalanche, bridge damage!

Ray_Dunakin · January 31, 2009, 3:31am

Yesterday Cris and I took a little trip to the town of Julian, in the mountains east of here. While we were away it got pretty windy here.

I had an empty bucket sitting at the top of the stairs on the west end of the layout. The wind knocked the bucket down the stairs, then it careened into my plate girder bridge, wiping out half the catwalk along one side of the bridge.

Luckily the damage is mainly cosmetic, not structural. So it won’t affect operations – unless you’re a scale person attempting to cross the bridge on foot.

mancosbob · February 2, 2009, 5:57am

[color=darkgreen]I am sorry to hear you had that happen; but at least it was not as bad as it might have been. Do like SP used to do and just lash some expanded metal walkways into place…although they are a bit scary to walk over on a very high bridge. My back yard is a wind tunnel at times, the last few days have sounded like a soundtrack recording for an action film made about the dust bowl. I am guessing winds can exceed 50mph out here. I may have to change my RR’s name to the Banshee Valley or something else similar which captures the feeling of spooky wind sounds.[/color]