Portageville Bridge Replacement, Future Tier Traffic

My guess would be that ties would be laid right onto the deck, then rails placed/spiked, then ballast dumped, then track lined and leveled.

How the rails get there poses an interesting question. Dragging CWR across the deck surface would make sense but may be very risky in that location. If the ribbon got loose it could hit the old bridge and damage it or take it right down.

Stick rail could be easily maneuvered out onto the bridge with a backhoe for starters, then replaced with CWR at some point in the future.

Questions I have are: Does the current bridge have CWR across it or stick rail? (I'm guessing the latter because the in-track stress of CWR may be more than the bridge could handle)... will they use wood or concrete ties? Will they use a track laying machine (TLM) or not?

Thought-provoking engineering questions, hopefully someone can shed light on them.

The trail has been re-opened to the Upper falls. You can now get this close to the old/new bridges.

Ken Wallace photo!

Seeing on Facebook that cutover could be as soon as Nov. 28th, pending weather and final construction.

JoeS wrote:My guess would be that ties would be laid right onto the deck, then rails placed/spiked, then ballast dumped, then track lined and leveled.

How the rails get there poses an interesting question. Dragging CWR across the deck surface would make sense but may be very risky in that location. If the ribbon got loose it could hit the old bridge and damage it or take it right down.

Stick rail could be easily maneuvered out onto the bridge with a backhoe for starters, then replaced with CWR at some point in the future.

Questions I have are: Does the current bridge have CWR across it or stick rail? (I'm guessing the latter because the in-track stress of CWR may be more than the bridge could handle)... will they use wood or concrete ties? Will they use a track laying machine (TLM) or not?

Thought-provoking engineering questions, hopefully someone can shed light on them.

probably do "snap-on" tracks like HO tracks. Tractor can carry section of tracks onto the bridge and lay them down... Then do the joints to connect them together. Afterward, fill in the ballast and tamping... Once they're done with that. I'm not sure if they could weld the rails together immediately after that or wait for tracks to settle down. Then they would weld them together...

I don't believe that they would want to drag the rails across that would scrap and damage the bridge concrete decks

John Kucko picture

Will it be painted a single color next summer?

I am betting they place an initial layer of ballast by truck. Then drag CRW across the new bridge on that layer of ballast and pushed to the sides. New ties will be dropped, also by truck. Starting at one end of the bridge a track crew will start lining up the ties, place the tie plates and pull the rail into place and spike it. Then a final layer of ballast will be placed by train and the track will be lined and tamped into final place. Then it will be placed into service.

cjvrr wrote:...Then a final layer of ballast will be placed by train and the track will be lined and tamped into final place. Then it will be placed into service.

But there needs to be a bridge naming / ribbon cutting ceremony before the first train crosses! Complete with EL and Erie Heritage units pulling the NS OCS train!

Thanks Chris!

johnpbarlow wrote:But there needs to be a bridge naming / ribbon cutting ceremony before the first train crosses! Complete with EL and Erie Heritage units pulling the NS OCS train!

So you're saying the honchos and bigshots should be the first to try it out and see what happens?

In the old days, they used to prove the integrity of a bridge by sending about a dozen locomotives across all coupled together. Maybe NS could assemble their heritage fleet and make a parade.

I know this wont happen but in a perfect world they could use four locomotives, in order:

1. Erie heritage unit in the lead.
2. EL heritage unit (SD45-2)
3. Conrail heritage unit.
4. any new NS unit.

All 142 years of the old bridge represented with only four locomotives!

Scot

scottychaos wrote:I know this wont happen but in a perfect world they could use four locomotives, in order:

1. Erie heritage unit in the lead.
2. EL heritage unit (SD45-2)
3. Conrail heritage unit.
4. any new NS unit.

All 142 years of the old bridge represented with only four loomotives!

Scot

Someone send this to NS CEO! (only if we had really good networks....)

The track is being installed rail by rail tie by tie no panels or cwr... Ballast has been stockpiled in a massive pile on the east end track is in place on both ends of the bridge.. needs to be fine tuned and cut in but it's there.. contractors not NS are doing the work so far

Thank you for the update. Wonder if they will weld up that rail once completed? Doubt, long term, they would want stick rail on that structure but you never know.

Just speculation, and maybe I'm way wrong. But we know they have equipment for changing out CWR, it's done all the time. It may be the most expedient way is to install stick rail across the bridge, where there is no rail at all to start with. Once things are in and operational, replacing that would be much easier. The wild card would be the fact that it's on a bridge not ground level, but obviously they lay CWR on bridges all the time so it "should" be something they can deal with easily.