Railroaders' Nostalgia > Railroad Trestle Pile Numbering

Any of you old timers know why there are these numbers on trestle piles?

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sliderslider Wrote:
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> Any of you old timers know why there are these
> numbers on trestle piles?

lengths

Most likely part of the record keeping, to keep it clear which parts were or need maintnance.

Rob

Posted from iPhone

Interesting thoguhts guys. Raises some good questions: if they are lengths--are these the lengths of the pile before it was driven? Why the different lengths? And if it's the length of the pile after it's been driven and then cut off at the height for the crossbeam that goes on top of it--why did they need to record it?

On the maintenance angle--you're saying these are years? Some of the trestle bents have a different number for each pile. Why would they be replacing piles in a bent at different times? Is that extra year or two going to make a difference? Why not just replace all the piles at same time?

Of course JLY is right: "Lengths".
If I may expand a bit:
Typically piles are driven "to refusal", meaning the pile driver can't get them any further into the ground.
Then the top is cut off to fit the cap (horizontal member).
Then the number is tacked on to record the length.
This number is a valuable record in case there is erosion (to know how much piling is still in the ground) and when planning replacements.
Although records may exist in an office somewhere, these field numbers are the gold standard of knowing about the bridge.

ok great thanks everyone and esp. railtiesballast

Whose trestle was this? A Santa Fe trestle I examined up close a few years ago had numbers on only one piling per bent at about eye-level from the riverbed. They appeared to be just numbering the bents sequentially from one end of the trestle to the other.

railstiesballast Wrote:
> Typically piles are driven "to refusal", meaning
> the pile driver can't get them any further into
> the ground.

Is that just for wooden piles? I talked to a crew driving steel piles (I-beam cross section) to replace the aforementioned wooden trestle, and they said they drove them until the number of blows needed to drive the piling one foot into the ground exceeded a certain threshold. I'm guessing a solid round pole puts up a lot more resistance a lot sooner than a steel I-beam.

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> Whose trestle was this? A Santa Fe trestle I
> examined up close a few years ago had numbers on
> only one piling per bent at about eye-level from
> the riverbed. They appeared to be just numbering
> the bents sequentially from one end of the trestle
> to the other.
>
> railstiesballast Wrote:
> > Typically piles are driven "to refusal",
> meaning
> > the pile driver can't get them any further into
> > the ground.
>
> Is that just for wooden piles? I talked to a crew
> driving steel piles (I-beam cross section) to
> replace the aforementioned wooden trestle, and
> they said they drove them until the number of
> blows needed to drive the piling one foot into the
> ground exceeded a certain threshold. I'm guessing
> a solid round pole puts up a lot more resistance a
> lot sooner than a steel I-beam.

When a steel pile is considered to be at "Refusal" the diesel driver is unable to move the pile one inch with eight blows.

This was NWP trestle over Corte Madera Creek, Marin County, CA, USA.