pumpers wrote:philipmartin wrote: I worked the Pennsy's Bay bridge (Upper Bay) on the Greenville Branch, and mariners call it the Lehigh Valley bridge. I have no idea why unless it's the Valley used it to get from Oak Island to Jersey City.
Well, that's because the Lehigh Valley RR built it and owned it....
Here is a fun link I just found on Google about one joint rebuilding effort after a fire in 1913.
https://books.google.com/books?id=BuBaA ... 22&f=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
That's a very interesting post. When I first worked that place in 1957 or '58 I hoped to spend my career there and as things turned out, I could have.
When I worked there, the Pennsy motive power was all electric. In those days I never saw a PRR diesel road engine, (except Baldwin shark noses for the Coast Line.)
On occasions when the operator lined westbound PRR freights for Oak Island, (misroute), if the engineer got his pantographs down fast enough to avoid tearing down the overhead wire, the Valley drill was good at coming out and shoving the train back under the wire.
You have forgive me for thinking it was a Pennsy bridge; all the guys who worked there were Pennsy employees, the operators, signal maintainers and the electricians who ran the diesels that gave us the power to move the span. That was automated maybe thirty years go so the operator could move the bridge without the electrician. It was dispatched by the Pennsy too. The signals were all position light.
When you have a drill coming out of Oak Island to go to Jersey City, your have to line it for track 1, to give it the widest arc. If you lined it for track 2 (the usual westbound track,) the narrower arc might cause it to stall.
Of interest: when they were installing the lift span, they dropped it in the bay; and so it is slightly crooked. When seating it you have to put downward put downward pressure on it to be able to lock it up.
Our Bay bridge got its name changed to Upper Bay shortly before the Conrail merger to distinguish it from the Jersey Central's four lift span Bay bridge, about a mile further down stream. At that time WC tower in Perth Amboy got its name changed to Wood, to distinguish it from the Erie's (EL) WC tower in Waldwick.
It's a lonely spot. A little more than twenty years ago, the operator was murdered there. I think he was involved with loan sharks. They tried to make it look as though he had hung himself.
Maybe twenty-five years ago, it was hit by an aircraft carrier that was being taken up to Kearny for breaking up. It got away from the five Moran tugs that that were moving it. When the guys on the bridge saw the carrier coming at them, they took off. The collision did minor damage.
Since the article you link to dates from 1913, the operation described was all steam.
As for the Pennsy getting damaged physical plant back in service fast, they were still doing it in the '60s. We had a freight wreck on the Bel Del, (passenger service had already been discontinued) and the Pennsy bulldozed derailed cars over the side, and got the single track railroad back in service as soon as possible. They picked up the wrecked cars later.