I was in the Drumheller area on Canada day where I drove to East Coulee to take some pics of this relic. I am not sure, but it must one of the longest of its type in Canada(maybe US?). It was the spur line to feed the Atlas # 3 Coal Mine, which has recently come under Government Protection as a historic site. Nice examples for modelling in any scale. Al
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Thank for the post!
VERY neat bridge. Built a model of a Howe pony truss bridge in 1969, at my entry point into O Scale. It was of the D&RGW bridge on the Silverton Branch, still in use today, I believe, in Durango. The wooden Howe Truss is a nice, visible education in how trusses disperse weight stresses. Where in Canada is this bridge?
Sorry, both the bridge and Coal Mine are located Drumheller Alberta. Its about an hours drive NE of Calgary. Al
Al - Might you know when the bridge was built?
Sorry, I do not know when it was built originally, but I can find out.
Al
It was built in 1936, when the Atlas # 3 mine started up. The Mine was producing coal, until 1979! I wish I would have known about this when I first moved to Calgary. I could have seen it working. Al
1936??!!! So late for a heavy timber structure. Would have thought iron or steel would have been the selected material! Very interesting. Thank you for the post!
Could it be that there was a lot of cheap timber in Canada in 1936?
Kent - Sage comment! Of course the coal tipple pictured was also made of heavy timbers, so guess the bridge followed in tandem! But, seemingly quite late for a timber Howe truss - thought they were confined to the 19th century.
Wow, thanks for posting, like a step back in time.
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