Well further north of where I'm modeling, but that would make a very interesting bridge to model. Thanks, Keith and Karl, for sharing!
Test Load... Please disregard my drawing that Keith was kind enough to post. This drawing has a couple of minor corrections and additions
There was a couple like that or similar on the Waldren Branch on Kansas City Southern (KCS). Rail was a common way to make cattle guards also. They used to drive rail into dirt fills to stabilize the slope. Good place to see them was on the lead line. Used rail was used for countless items on the railroad. Nice Drawing. Bill Jackson
Jeff and I were able to return to the Winding Stair Mountains, and we were able to reach bridge 481.6 for a first hand inspection. See: http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index....ountain-profile-june-30-1909.1361/#post-62846 I intended to redraw the bridge, but I didn't get back to the task until recently. Here is my second attempt to create a drawing of Frisco Bridge 481.6, nee 481.5. Having been able to inspect the remains of the bridge in person, I was able to see my mistaken assumptions. From the Bridge Record, November 1979: Spans: 2, 6'-0" Type: Rail Span Number of Bents: 3 Chord, Ply: 9 Kind: 90 lbs Second hand rail Ties: 6" x 8" x 9'-0" Year: 1938 Max Panel Length: 6'-0" Total Length: 13'-0" In my first interpretation, I used a standard trestle backwall. I misinterpreted the chord description from the bridge record. Eighteen rails were used to form 2 chords of 9 rails instead of the 9 rails that I used to form a single chord. The bridge is located on the Frisco’s Arthur Subdivision between Lamberson, MP 480.0, and Talihina, MP 483.6. My 1909 profile shows a rail bridge at this location, albeit MP 481.5. The original structure used stone for the center pier and the two abutments. It used 67 lbs rail for the chords. If I had looked at the 1909 profile, I might have had a better idea how the structure looked. I didn't remember I had the profile until after our trip to the Winding Stair Mountains. During 1938, the structure was rebuilt with concrete abutments and a concrete pier. The chord, 9 rails/chord, used 90 lbs rail. For the bridge deck, the B&B records implied the use of a standard plan open deck. These are the materials that I used: I believe that the rail chords were fabricated off site. The rails were welded to boiler plate, three rail spacers were placed between the chords, and two gauge rods were used to snug everything together. See the photographs. The whole shebang was then loaded on a flat or a gondola, and then dropped into place with a Brownhoist crane. For clarity, the boiler plate and the gauge rods were not shown in my drawing. The prototype bridge is on a 3 degree curve and on a 0.707% grade. I have depicted the bridge as being on a tangent and level. The bridge was strong enough to handle everything up to the lighter, 4000-class locomotives.
Hi Karl: Thanks for the info and update. You said: "The bridge is located on the Frisco’s Arthur Subdivision between Lamberson and Talihina." I live about 45 minutes away from Talihina. Using topo maps, I can't for the life of me see a way back toward the roadbed via a county or forest road, either side (west or east). Are you hiking up the road bed from Talihina? One of my "bucket list" things to do is hike the roadbed (in sections, if needed) from Talihina to Bengal. However, I suspect there will be creeks I won't be able to cross. Unfortunately, I just can't find any roads or trails that touch base with the road bed that would permit vehicular traffic in order to get closer to the road bed. Any experience you can share about hiking that area would be much appreciated. Andre
