Eastern Division (Closed)

[Brad Slone]

Gentlemen, the eastern division has been closed for several days now and probably won't be reopened for another day or two. The following photo's where taken yesterday a couple hours before the crest of 30.43 ft. The only time it was higher was 12/05/82 with a crest of 31.42.

[Brad Slone]

I forgot to mention thsee photo's where taken at Jerome.

[meteor910]

Wow! :eek:

Are they worried about losing the bridge?

Ken

[Brad Slone]

Ken,

Somehow she made it although it came up probably another 6-9 inches after these photo's where taken, the river has fell 5' since then. The railroad didn't take much action, although I would think they had to be nervous. I was pretty young in 1982 although I can remember it fairly well, in that flood they parked a string of loaded hopper cars on the bridge to help hold it down. I expected to see the same treatment this time, unless things where bad enough elsewhere to prevent them from bringing cars in?

Brad

[yardmaster]

Wow - doesn't look like there's much to keep the bridge from floating away.

BNSF has closed the River Division as well. According to www.semissourian.com, they closed the floodgate just south of Freeze siding (roughly MP 130) in Cape on Thursday, and are also dealing with washouts to the north on the old St. Louis Sub.

Hope the folks at other points (Eureka and Valley Park come to mind) are holding their own.

[meteor910]

The Gasconade bridge at Jerome/Arlington was originally a three truss structure. All the old Arlington post cards show that.

Does anybody know when the Frisco replaced the center truss and western truss with deck-girder bridges? Is the eastern truss shown in Brad's pics the original, or is this a replacement as well? Anybody know?

Ken

[meteor910]

Is the eastern truss shown in Brad's pics the original, or is this a replacement as well? Anybody know?
Ken

I've examined the two old Jerome/Arlington Gasconade bridge post cards I have, and can answer my own question.

The present Gasconade truss bridge span, shown in Brad's pics from yesterday, is not the same eastern truss that was part of the original three-truss bridge at the same location as is the present bridge over the Gasconade River. (This is in error - see Brad Sloane's and my later postings below) Ken
Most likely, the Frisco replaced the original eastern truss with a new, stronger one when they removed and replaced the original central and western truss spans with girder deck bridge spans.

Still would like to know when that was.

Ken

[Brad Slone]

Ken,

I'm not so sure, but there was a derailment over the bridge I believe sometime in the 50's. I have seen some photos of the wreckage, unfortunately I was not able to get copies. I say the 50's, I suppose it could have been the early 60's from the appearance of the vehicles. According to what I have been told the two western most spans where damaged beyond repair and therefore two new piers where poured spliting the spans inhalf and replaced with through girders. I do know from a construction standpoint the new piers are formed on the outside with sheet pilings. These are nomarlly set as a perimeter, the inside excavated and piers are formed, poured and the sheet pilings removed. From this I can conclude that the piers where built in a hurry, which would make sence. While the remaining eastern most span was left as is. For what its worth this is what I've heared took place.

Brad

[TAG1014]

There was a freight derailment in that bridge about 1961 or 1962. Sometine afterward (couple of months I'd guess), I rode the Will Rogers from St. Louis to Springfield and when the train came to the bridge it went REALLY s-l-o-w! It was probably supposed to be five MPH, but it seemed like a crawl. Some of the vertical and diagonal members of the bridge were missing.

Tom

[meteor910]

I think Brad is correct; I need to retract my earlier statement about the eastern truss bridge at Jerome/Arlington.

Based on close examination of my early (pre-WW2) post card prints of the three-truss Gasconade bridge at Jerome/Arlington, I now believe - opposite to what I said earlier - that the present easternmost truss bridge span at Jerome is the original bridge, at least it sure looks like it under a magnifying glass.

The original three-truss bridge had three truss spans, each with five vertical members in the truss. It's hard to tell, because the post card pics are at an angle, and the western-most truss is hard to make out, but all three look identical or at least very similar.

Today's truss bridge on the east end looks like the same span as the eastern truss on the post cards. Wonder how old that puppy is?

The BNSF had a lot of faith in that old bridge letting the Gasconade come up on it like Brad's pics show without adding weight to it by parking full hopper cars on it as it was noted they did in prior floods.

Ken

[Brad Slone]

I think trains are running again, as I noticed a westbound manifest go through town today about 4pm. I also heard today that the reason they didn't put anything on the bridge was that it was cut off on either end before they could get there.

Brad

[w3hodoug]

Here's an airborne shot of Jerome taken on 3/20/08. Doug

[Morailfan]

It may be old news by now, but I'd like to contribute some pictures I took at Valley Park and V.P. JCT during the flooding. These pictues were taken the week of March 21st.