I have been going through my old railfanning photos and am currently experimenting with scanning some. This little incident happened sometime in the mid 1980's. Very early spring in Painesville, Ohio, a footing washed out under the Norfolk & Western trestle over the Grand River. These photos were taken within 30 feet of the machine shop I worked at. The water level had been way over the footings the day before. In these two photos you can see the washed out footing. Trains ceased using this trestle immediately and did not resume for more than a month. This was Norfolk & Western's high tech warning device:
I presume this is why engineers have to watch the track ahead. I hope an engineer would be able to see this defect in time to stop, if he/she were the first across after the washout. Was the footing replaced with the same type? Thanks.
Yes. The kink is from where the trestle corner has no support. I know for a fact that at least one train crept over that trestle in this condition. I assume it was the one that found it this way. It came from the direction that I am standing. There is a fairly blind curve about 1000 feet behind me so that train crew had one heck of a white knuckle ride because there was no way for them to get stopped in time. When they fixed it they used a cofferdam and replaced the footing with one fairly similar. After that they plowed around down there and actually changed the way the river runs. This is the same river which flooded to another record height last Summer and wiped out several condo communities, one of which my sister-in-law lived in. Today other than the trestle itself, The river has moved around so much wiping out trees and the like. It's hard to recognize it as the same area.
In fact, both ends of the trestle have blind curves, as can be seen just past the red signal. Seeing that makes me not quite sure I really want to take a ride on such a narrow trestle... Here's how it looked within the past few years: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=41.716549,-81.227015&spn=0.002867,0.003144&t=k&z=18&om=1 The road below is SR 84, which recently had its bridge replaced. For a really tall trestle check this one south of Pittsburgh out: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=40.207578,-79.98491&spn=0.002933,0.003144&t=k&z=18&om=1 This one's at least 200 feet tall with a curve on one end! This is the former P&WV, now WLE going under PA toll road 43. It's definitely somthing to see if you are in the area along SR 88 between Monongahela and Finleyville. BTW, SST: I assume you worked at Coe. Did you know they're tearing down several buildings just south of the trestle?
Yes. both my dad and I worked for Coe Manufacturing and lived on Laurel court. I worked there until 1989. I took a ride into Painesville two weeks ago and was shocked to see that they tore down the old machine shop and foundry. then I saw that the middle school I went to as a kid has been torn down also. The local Sherrif's Department used to keep a pretty good eye on this trestle along with the (now) NS Police. Myself living 500 feet from this trestle and working daily literally overlooking the trestle we thought we had seen it all until this. People used to cross this thing regularly carrying groceries, walking or even attempting to ride bicycles etc. Golf clubs were a common site being toted across the bridge as Painesville Country Club is just to the right. I remember several suicide attempts including one where a woman shod all her clothing before attempting to meet her maker. At one point we even witnessed a couple doing "The Dirty Deed" out there on the middle of that thing. You might wonder if old Warren ever went out on that thing being that it was almost literally in his back yard. The answer I confess would be yes. Many of my crazy friends had actually either crossed it or even "rode a train out" on one of the platforms. Not me. All my life I have carried with me quite a case of acrophobia. I could never make it more than maybe 15-20 feet out before the spacing between the ties got wide enough to fit a size 11 through. I couldn't get off that thing fast enough. As far as I know, no one ever died from being hit by a train here but several jumped.
