🌁 What are Your Favourite Railroad Bridges in 2025?

[Rooster]

@manimal

Someone speculated it was originally built with top supports straight across (16 feet clearance) and the arches were added later to allow for taller equipment.

I honestly think it was originally designed that way ( if it matters). I believe there are other examples but I cannot find them currently. It’s a pratt truss design that I would designate as a pony truss however with the arched connecting struts on top it kinda becomes a thru truss doesn’t it?

Remember a lot of your early bridge builders were usually somehow related to ship building. I think the design is European of some kind (British/French) not sure though.

Either that or the Canadian’s were ahead of their time thinking someday Superliners would need to access Mattawamkeag for switching opportunities.

[Hines (Bill)]

Dave I think they may be called arched upper chords that are used for both structural support and aesthetic appeal.​

In Oz they’re reportedly found on British built and Belgian sourced structures. It looks like our railways have avoided using them for catenary wire too.

[Cliff_Jennings]

Since viaducts have been brought up, the Thomas Viaduct of 1835, Elkridge MD, is still carrying CSX trains.

[Hines (Bill)]

If you ever get over to England, their waterway system is something to behold. Early on in the Industrial Revolution people traded in riding by horse to travelling at the amazing speed of 4mph on a canal boat.

When the iron horse arrived, railways soon multiplied those speeds and lured passengers into railway coaches. The railways soon bought up many canals for their water needs as a source for steam. In many places in the UK you see aqueducts beside viaducts for that reason.

The Chirk aqueduct (below) is one such example. We travelled across the aqueduct straight into a tunnel at the amazing speed of 4mph as a train zoomed by.

[JRad (Jon Radder)]

A longboat cruise will be one of the signs. I went down the Youtube rabbit hole one week, WOW.

And while in the UK there are a bunch of railway preservation sites and cool narrow gauge up in the Welsh highlands.

[manimal (Dan Gilchrist)]

@Rooster

I honestly think it was originally designed that way

could be. I’ve been told that and there are others like it in Canada but I have yet to see another.
EDIT: Just found one!

Former CP Kettle Valley Railway bridge now part of a rail trail but out of service due to flood damage.

@Rooster

Either that or the Canadian’s were ahead of their time thinking someday Superliners would need to access Mattawamkeag for switching opportunities.

It just so happens there have been recent talk about running double stacks on that line.

[Hines (Bill)]

Jon,

We’ve done it twice and it was the least expensive and most relaxing week we had. It’s supported by the lottery over there and they are reopening a lot of canals.

We’ve travelled into Wales and Scotland. Been able to moor in the city centres of Glasgow and Edinburgh.

We did it with just us 2 but the boats become quite affordable with 6-8 people. There were pubs at many locks if you didn’t want to cook for yourself.

Canal Junction is our Go-To planning site.

The Llangollen Canal Holiday Guide and Map - Canal Junction UK

[Rick_Marty]

Another favorite of mine is the Nevada County Narrow Gauge crossing of Bear River near Colfax, CA.
Pictures from Gerald M. Best’s book, Nevada County Narrow Gauge.

First built in 1876 of wood construction it lasted a long time.

The new and more scenic bridge was built in 1908

This bridge stood 173 plus feet above the river and was 811 plus feet long.

Demolition time, August 23rd 1963. The railroad was defunct and the bridge was in the way for the construction of the Rollins Dam project. All the explosive charges were placed and then set off. When the smoke cleared there stood the bridge, slightly out of line but standing firmly. They attempted to pull the bridge over sideways with a tractor and long cable, but the cable broke and the bridge didn’t move.

Two more dynamite attempts only moved the bridge a few inches. They gave up on that idea and brought in oxy/ acetylene torches and cut all the main girders and beams and were finally able to pull it down. This ended the story of California’s best know narrow gauge railroad.

[capecodtodd (Todd Haskins)]

This lift bridge spans the Cape Cod Canal and this engineering marvel has always been my favorite. I have been over it several times on a train.

[manimal (Dan Gilchrist)]

That’s crazy! It looks so fragile.

[Cliff_Jennings]

- YouTube

[Rooster]

Ok, since Bill started this thread I thought I would share a video I made a few years ago which shows my fetish for bridges. Cliff, you wanna meet up about 1/2 way in Lancaster county I’ll take you into some of Pennsyltucky that many ignore or could care less about. Bridges make my butt hurt from thinking too much about the architecture and skill to make them.
IMO it’s a total lost art these days!

dnssʎ

- YouTube

[Rooster]

Shut up Rooster !!

October 31,2020

[Rick_Marty]

Very cool find Cliff, I’m excited, didn’t know that film existed.
Thanks for posting it.

[Hines (Bill)]

@Rooster

Ok, since Bill started this thread

Bill’s fault again!?

[VicSmith]

Always thought that this was mighty impressive. Diablo Canyon, Arizona

[Deneh (Bruce S. Gebbeken)]

Let’s not forget the Lawyers Canyon Bridge on the Camas Prairie Railroad, once was the highest railroad bridge in the world in early 1900’s. The bridge is 1500 feet long and 296 feet long.

[Rooster]

How The 8th Wonder Of The World Failed Due To An Engineering Oversight |Massive Engineering Mistakes

So a buddy of mine was part of the restoration crew working on the viaduct. He was on the ground when the tornado came through. They were radioed a call and told to get down and seek cover immediately. He said by the time they got onto their 4 wheelers it was too late. One of the guys broke the thumb throttle lever on his quad as the piers came crashing down around them. Thankfully it was a skeleton crew that day and amazingly no one was hurt or killed.
We used to joke about him getting back to the camp, taking off his jeans and shaking the poop out of them.

[Deneh (Bruce S. Gebbeken)]

excellent video, thanks Rooster

[Turbo4whl (Wayne Powell)]

Trestle over the East branch of the Brandywine Creek. Along side the creek is Route 322. Besides 322, another road and a defunct trolley line also cross under the trestle.

This rail line was converted to the Chester Valley Trail. Currently runs from Valley Forge to Exton Pennsylvania. Before Covid, there was a 5 year plan to continue the trail from Exton to Thorndale. That would have included crossing this trestle in Downingtown. Well that didn’t happen. In the past 2 years there has been two suicides where young people jumped off the trestle.

When I was a lot younger, a buddy and I crossed in the dark one night. It was still an active rail line. No real walkway, had to walk on the ties.