Viaduct

ooooooh, another bridge I can make.   Thx. Clem

Stockyard Express is in Oberlin, OH, so somewhere around there.

Vy not a chicken?

So is/was this a railroad viaduct or a road viaduct?

it appears to be this one:

https://akronrrclub.wordpress....d-railroads-of-ohio/

On this forum I thought it would be better to say some place we know, than Wakeman Ohio. Five minutes from Stockyard Express.

Isn't it fascinating how the color of the stone changes with moisture, sky, seasons?

When dry, it clearly looks to be a sand color, but when damp, it takes on various grays and browns, and even hues of blue or charcoal.

This is the very thing that I aspire to recreate when I paint bridges, but often eludes me. Sometimes I will purposely make one side of the bridge different coloring than the other, since you can't really see both sides at the same time.    Offers variety of choice.

Your good Tim…….. I'm going for a ride and take photos of a couple of more bridges, lets see if you can figure them out.   

Clem

Will they have trains on them?

Was thinking the same thing.

I have one for you.

Same state, west of Toledo, Maumee I think.

Interurban line.

Single track, eliptical arch, still used, not sure of.   I think so tho.

huh???

don't get arrested.

OK this is an easy one but a neat bridge this is along side M34 in Lenawee county Michigan, old NYC branch line. Within walking distance of downtown  ----- ? Still in use by Local short line. Single track

Tim    I'm not sure about your photo, doesn't look familiar. Still working on it.

Clem

Looks like the bars and bolt ties are being used to provide support to the stonework.  

is the stonework failing??

Alan……. the stone work seems to be in good shape,nothing loose. I don't know when the supports where added. 

Here is another arch along the same highway and the same NYC branch line. This one is abandoned, just kinda sits there sticking out of the ground. The fill on each side as been removed.The water is really high right now, normally a nice clear creek (Bean Creek). This is about 18 miles west of the other bridge.

Clem, it is funny you mention this bridge.    I made a rendition of this bridge for the Glancy Model Railroad Club's permanent layout at the Detroit Historical Museum per their request.    I was unfamiliar with the bridge until they approached me and asked me to do it for their layout.    My family and I took a road trip to see it in person, and with it being adjacent to a city park, we were able to go completely under it, and even climb the wing walls to the very top.    I measured the stone height, and took many photographs for the project.   

Here is a photo of the finished project.    Bear in mind, the real bridge crosses a ravine that is rather tall, but not very wide.    The Glancy club needed a bridge that looked like it, but to cross a low ravine that was rather wide, therefore I had to take artistic license, and make it three arches, rather than two, in order to accomplish the project.     How did I do?

Good thing they de-commissioned this one, it appears to be sagging a little, unless it is a curved single arch, in which case it could be an optical illusion.    I am not familiar with this bridge at all.

Tim that turned out great! the other bridge is in Hudson, I have more photos.There was another set of tracks that ran along side Bean creek, and the tracks that went on this bridge went over them also. there is still stone abutments in place to allow a single track. I think GTW tracks. there was earth fill between the bean creek bridge and the stone abutments for the bridge. Hudson had a north south railroad that followed Bean creek and a east west railroad that went over the top.  

It's from the Marx Bros' 1929 movie The Cocoanuts- Groucho describes the development to Chico - at 3:30 in this clip is where it happens.

Why a Duck?

They were before my time, but I always enjoyed them watching the movies. They didn't know what to have on TV in the late '50's and early '60's.

it looks like the bars are supporting the arch not a feature of the bridge.

Its made of concrete (not stone) but I've always liked the Manayunk Viaduct.

Great pics.  The Bridge with support bars is particularly interesting. Really is (as seen in tim W's post) a great subject for making a bridge that stands out from the usual.

The items you mention are braces, that the railroad engineers added to the bridge many decades ago, in order to keep it together as it aged, and tonnage increased. They are basically railroad ties, with steel rod threaded through from one side of the bridge to the other, in order to lock together the stone on the intrados, extrados, and spandrels. to give the bridge added strength so that it does not eventually self-destruct by the downward forces, which will then push outward at the weakest part of the bridge.    As long as the voissoirs are intact, the arches themselves are strong, but the face on each side of the bridge has nothing pushing back, hence the need over time for the braces.    They keep the sides locked in to each other, as a unit, so to speak, and keep the fill inside in place.     This bridge was built in 1867, the roadbed currently is much higher than it was back then, based on photos I've seen.    I think the openings that alternate along the top portion of the bridge where the steel rods go through, used to be open, but I think concrete reinforcement went in when they did the rods, and this raised the roadbed significantly above what used to be the parapet wall.    Additional photos of the model can be seen on this website:

http://www.jcstudiosinc.com/BlogShowThread?id=988

and if you google search Adrian, MI stone arch bridge, rou will see additional photos of the real thing.

Alan,

The threaded rods actually don't touch the underarch stone.    There is a space of about an inch or so, maybe more between the rod, and the archbelly.    The arches themselves are very, very strong, unless the bridge begins to deteriorate elsewhere, eventually affecting them.   The weakest spot on these bridges are the faces, from the forces pushing down, and ultimately outward.

The bridge in Wakeman is part of the old NYC line that connected to the mainline at Vickers.  It was like a by-pass in case the main line was blocked....

Marty

Here are a couple out in Southern California that could adorn a model railroad.

This is the "Macy Street Bridge" across the Los Angeles River near LA Union Passenger Terminal (aka Union Station). Note the UP (SP) tracks going under on the right with the BNSF (ATSF) tracks going under the left. This bridge could hide the end of a return loop or oval. I haven't been able to track down the actual dimensions, but some of that could be extrapolated from using known dimensions like the track gauge. The Pacific Electric had tracks running on this bridge decades ago.

This one is the Pacific Electric Viaduct in the City of Torrance. It even appears in the city seal. They recently had the bridge structurally restored. They were nice enough to post good drawings with dimensions when they were soliciting bids (I have, or course, downloaded them). The SP/PE tracks ran underneath, plus they looped around to a switchback to serve a Steel mill on the north side of the bridge. The steel mill was shut down in the late 1970's but I can actually remember SP dropping off a coal drag and picking up empties.