Wire Junction: NYC vs. CSS/NS/NKP

(Satellite)
CSS is the nickname for the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend Realroad. The CSS&SB now handles just freight. A government agency is responsible for the passenger service. CSS bought the NKP's L&EW branch between Michigan City and Kingsbury. [Trains, November 07, 2005 10:18 AM] The route has to be through Sillwell to a spur that served the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant. An industrial park is being developed along that branch.

Ken Durkel posted
South Shore Freight AF-2 Southbound waits for the signal at Wire in LaPorte, Indiana as a westbound passes on the NS Chicago Line on March 06, 2014.
Mark Egebrecht Wire?Jeff Krall From what I have been told, back in the days of CR, the interlocker/diamond at milepost 462 was referred to as Wire.Craig Cloud Yep, PC Western Division ETT diamond was called Wire. Plus, notice South Shore speed over diamond around 10mph due being a flange bearing diamond.Ken Durkel The older crews still call it Wire, on occasion dispatch does. Location was WR interlocking.Matt Lastovich When I call the NS I call it Wire.

I've been studying railroads for over four years now, and I'm still learning about new junctions in the Chicagoland area.

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1925 Road and 1911 Railroad Bascule Bridges in Ashtabula, OH:

Road: (Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite, 79+ photos)
Railroad: (Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Flickrs: Todd, Greg; Satellite)

Josh Schmid, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)
View from northwest

Josh Schmid, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)
Partially open bridge from northwest

When I searched for Ashtabula to check out what was left of the NYC/LS&MS ore docks, Google Maps offered the following as the "signature" photo for the town.

Harish Mukundan

This looked similar to a Strauss heel-trunnion bascule bridge design, but there were enough differences that I suspected it was designed by someone else and the differences avoided patent infringement. Sure enough, Bridge Hunter indicates the "Patent Engineer/Design" is Thomas Ellis Brown. And Historic Bridges indicates it is one of the few surviving Brown type bascule bridges left in the country, and the only one in Ohio.

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(Update: The 1911 Bridge Hunter page for the Duwamish River Bridge was my source concerning Strauss' earlier design.)
The railroad bridge may have been owned by a terminal railroad that allowed NYC, NKP and Pennsy to access the ore docks. The bridge is an early Strauss heel-trunnion design. And, unlike other early designs I have seen, this 1911 bridge has not been converted to Strauss' later design. This early design has the machinery room on top of the movable span and the operating strut is fixed to the counterweight tower. By 1919, Strauss had moved the machinery room to the counterweight tower and fixed the operating strut to the movable span. Below is a closeup of the two bridges on the South Branch of the Chicago River that have the modern design. I highlighted the operating strut of the near bridge, which is closed, in red and the strut of the far bridge, which is open, in yellow. You can see that the strut comes out the back of the tower as the bridge is raised. That photo allows you to compare the modern design with the earlier design still used in this bridge.

20150513 1427, cropped plus Paint

In this earlier design, the strut moves into the span. And you can see the machinery house on top of the movable span.

Bridge Hunter plus Paint

Bridge Hunter plus Paint

Bridge Hunter plus Paint

Walter Gunter posted
N&S Drawbridge. Ashtabula harbor. N.E. Ohio.
Walter Gunter Worked as a Conrail brakeman in the mid 70s . We moved alot of coal & ore over it.Mike Shinsky I was there this summer the yard is for mostly stone now.

(Facebooked)

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IHB+Fort Wayne Junction: IHB/NYC vs Pennsy

(see below for satellite)
NorthAmericanInterlockings: see below
Chicago and Northern Indiana Railroad Interlocking Towers (click the marker for the correct information)

Pennsy called this junction Indiana Harbor, and IHB called it Fort Wayne because it was Pennsy's Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago route. Note the IHB route was really owned by NYC because it is the northern part of the Kankakee Belt. But it was, and is, operated by IHB.

William Shopotkin posted three images with the comment:

Here are a couple of pix of the tower Indiana Harbor (East Chicago, IN) -- where the IHB x/o PC (PRR). They were taken by Dr. Robert Breese of the back end of Amtrak's EB BROADWAY LIMITED on July 17, 1974. Also included is a diagram of the interlocking. Sadly, the one-time PRR thru the area is but a memory.

Eric Powell The concrete slab for this tower is still visible, barely, right next to the Cline Avenue bridge going over the IHB.

1

2

3, also NorthAmericanInterlockings

Satellite plus Paint

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NYC/LS&MS Ashtabula River Bridge Disaster

(Bridge Hunter, Satellite)

Roy Kessmann posted four photos with the comment:

Ashtabula, Ohio Bridge disaster 1876
The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway designed a bridge to cross the Ashtabula Creek in 1865.The Chief Engineer reviewed the design and declared it unsafe. The CEO of the railroad said to build it anyway. The bridge design was based upon wooden structures in use at the time but wrought iron was used for the structural members instead. No one really knew the strength of wrought iron at the time for a given thickness. The bridge was a two track affair having a height of 70 feet over the creek. In a freezing, howling blizzard on Friday, December 28, 1876 train #5, the Pacific Express approached the bridge Westbound being pulled by two engines: The Socrates and the Columbia. Four helper engines were used in getting the 11 car train through the snow drifts on its way from Buffalo. In the process of crossing the bridge it failed due to metal fatigue. The first engine made it across but the rest of the train fell into the gorge. The wreck caught on fire from the non compliant stoves that were used in the coaches. The railroad had a policy that wrecks that caught on fire would be left to burn themselves out in complete disregard for the passengers. The town of Ashtabula brought a steam pumper as well as a paddle pumper to the sight. However, the Chief, an alcoholic, never gave the order to pump water. So a volunteer organization went to help save the passengers. A few were pulled out of the wreck safely. However, most succumbed to fire or injuries suffered from wreckage trapping them. It is not known exactly how many souls were lost. But estimates range up to 200. What is disgusting is that thieves combed the wreck sight to take valuables from the dead and the living. It was thought that the Chief Engineer of the railroad committed suicide. But the coroners report was not opened until 1890 and disclosed that the individual was murdered. The bridge designer committed suicide 7 years after the wreck.

1
[Some bridges were tested by stringing a bunch of locomotives across the entire length. Maybe they knew this one would not handle that.]

2
Wreckage in Ashtabula creek. One engine, bridge structure, railcars, and humans.

3
Fire breaks out from non compliant stoves in railcars.

4
Bridge abutments after fire burns out.

Bridge Hunter has several more photos including the wood replacement that burned in 1895 and a replacement "fishbelly" deck truss.

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Conrail/NYC/Franklin & Clearfield Trestle over Clarion River

(Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite. 111+ photos; Satellite of tunnel entrance)

There are long tunnels on both sides of the bridge.

Chris Spear posted
Not the most beautiful bridge, but huge. Near Clarion, Pa. Abandoned in the early 80s. There are tunnels on both sides. In the 70s, some friends and I jumped a slow moving coal train and rode over the trestle and thru one of the tunnels. Not my photo.

Douglas Barrette commented on Chris' posting

The Railway Age, Volume 45, p377

The Railway Age, Volume 45, p379

(new window)  The drone footage is added at the end beginning at 13:28.

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Norfolk Southern Chicago Railyards and Crew Assignments

Kelby Stroughter posted the questions:

Quick question for you guys in Chicago, IL. How many yards does NS have around the Chicago area? Also was wondering what crews run on the Chicago Line between Ft. Wayne and Chicago?

Larry Amaloo Landers [Wabash], Calumet [NKP], Ashland [NYC], 55th Street [Pennsy], Park Manor [NYC], Colehour [Pennsy] are the major NS terminals up here, most are intermodal terminals as well. The NS Crew districts are Toledo-Chicago, Elkhart-Chicago for Dearborn Division, Fort Wayne-Chicago, Bellevue-Chicago for Lake Division. Kankakee Yard and Burns Harbor Yard I do not think are grouped with the Chicago Yards.

Andrew Stephenson NS also has the vehicle mixing center in Hegeswisch. [I assume he means the IHB Gibson Yard that is shared by all of the Chicago trunk lines to switch autorack cars.]

Stan Stanovich ...Chicago has traditionally been an “away from home terminal!!!” Road crews run into Chicago from Toledo and Elkhart on the Chicago Line and Ft. Wayne and in certain cases Bellevue on the Nickel Plate! There is no road work which radiates out of Chicago on NS. Conrail was basically the same!!!

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Kanawha River/NS/NYC 1919 Bridge over Ohio River at Point Pleasant, WV

(Bridge Hunter, contains a relatively long history description; Historic Bridges; Satellite)

The main span is 420' long. The original bridge was completed in 1885 with a 450' main span.

According to the 2005 SPV Map, Toledo & Ohio Central owned the route that connected this bridge through Columbus to Toledo. Kanawha & Michigna a route into West Virginia that went through Charleston. According to Bridge Hunter, K&M also owned the bridge. This bridge also carried traffic between the Hocking Valley in Ohio and a B&O route in WV.

Both the T&OC and K&M were subsidiaries of NYC and Norfolk Southern got them when Conrail was split between NS and CSX. According to the August, 2018 issue of Trains Magazine, pp 41-47, in 2016 Watco formed the shortline Kanawha River to lease and operate the route between Columbus and some towns south of Charleston, WV. Pages 41-42 is a two-page (drone?) photo of a KR train crossing this bridge into Ohio.

Bob O'Malley posted
Point Pleasant Railroad Bridge over the Ohio River. The bridge connects Ohio and West Virginia.
[This would have been taken from the WV shore looking ]
Patrick Cavanaugh also the site of the SILVER BRIDGE...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Bridge

Street View

Street View

On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge connecting Point Pleasant and Kanauga that carried US 35 collapsed into the Ohio River, killing 46. As there was no other fixed crossing across the river at that location, the K&M hosted commuter passenger service. Fares were 50 cents one way to Gallipolis and 35 cents to Kanauga, with 5 scheduled departure times. The service continued until the Silver Memorial Bridge opened in December 1969. [Bridge Hunter]

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NS/NYC Iron Curtain Bridge over Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, OH

(Bridge Hunter, Historic Bridges, 3D Satellite)

I noticed that Cleveland has quite a few lift bridges for roads as well as railroads. After Chicago built the Halsted Street Bridge, they decided lift bridges would be too ugly for use in the downtown area so the invented their Chicago Style trunnion bascule design.

Photo by C Hanchey, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC), Flickr

Bridge Hunter has a build date of 1947. But Historic Bridges explains the project to widen the river was started in 1946, but this bridge was completed in 1958. C Hanchey's Flickr page also uses the 1958 date. I assume the truss on top carry pipes.

Kenneth James White posted
Norfolk Southern (and before that Conrail, and before that Penn Central, and before that New York Central!) lift bridge at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River in me hometown of Cleveland. Known locally as the"Iron Curtain".
Brandon Lee Known on the RR as bridge one.

Cleveland Public Library Photo Credit, License: Released into public domain
Old and New - Construction 1956

(new window) You can tell it is a more modern bridge, the train is going pretty fast for a movable bridge. Fast train speeds would be important for Norfolk Southern and Amtrak since this is on their mainline between Chicago and New York. At 3:21, at second train crosses the bridge. At 4:46, the trains are done and the span starts to lift.

Wayne Koch posted
Cleveland OH Railyard NYC PRR 1949.
John Penca Bridge one in the photo was a swing bridge later replaced by a two track lift bridge which NS uses today.
Paul Volosyn Cool seeing one come off the Clark branch and heading west on the Chicago line. Also the B&O coming across bridge 464 (by shooters) and heading to the interchange with the NYC. Great photo.

Wayne Koch posted
Gem. NYC EMD F7 class DFA-2f 1671, Cuyahoga River drawbridge, Cleveland, OH 1960s NYCSHS.

Dan Nelson commented on Wayne's posting

(new window)  At 3:00, it sounds like the ship has a steam engine. Only the first two scenes are at night. At 6:20, Hulett unloaders are in the background! 7:49 shows the rolling bascule bridge. In the foreground at 10:59 we see how jointed rail becomes wavy if it is not maintained. At 12:32 you realize he has been riding up with the span.


(new window) Note when it raises at 3:57 that this bridge has very little clearance. Even small pleasure boats have to wait for it to go up. Even ski- jets and kayaks?

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