Nostalgia & History > Using a passenger train to close a drawbridge

Railroads were a bit different 35 years ago than they are now, at least in my experience (yours may vary). Employees were expected to know their stuff, to know what could and should be done and do it. Towers had a tool rack with spikes, a maul, a puller, a pipe wrench, a hammer and perhaps some other tools that I don't remember. Operators were expected to know enough signal troubleshooting to be able to move trains if at all possible until the signal maintainer arrived. If there were power switches, there was a Raco wrench, a clutch handle and crank and the operator had to know how to open the switch machine case and wind the switch by hand (no dual control switches, at least not on B&OCT). If the plant was mechanical, the operator had to know how to disconnect switches from the pipeline, bar them over, and spike them when necessary.

On my first shift as assistant chief dispatcher, I took the transfer from the chief and the last thing he said as he went out the door was 'when you're here, you're me, so I don't want to hear from you.' Not long thereafter, the superintendent said that if we had one in the ditch or killed somebody, call him, otherwise he didn't want to hear from me. There were no corridor managers, transportation managers, supervisors, or conference calls. There was no army of trainmasters. There was one at Barr Yard and one at Robey Street. Each had his hands full. For the rest, there was me, the trick man, and a railroad to run (and not enough time to be able to ponder the enormity of that situation, but it could give a bit of a lonely feeling now and again).

The Calumet River Bridge was a double track Strauss-type bascule bridge around 280 feet (I don't remember exactly) long. In winter, the operators would sometimes have trouble closing it if it had been open for an extended time. The bridge would shrink enough that it would not seat properly when it lowered. Often, it was so close that if they bounced it a time or two, it would seat and they could lock it.

One winter night, right after a snow/sleet storm, the operator at CR called me to get a signal maintainer and the bridge electrician because the bridge would not seat. He went out to the end and crawled under to take a look. It was not off by much, less than an inch, but enough that he could not get it closed. It looked like he would need the bridge electrician and signal maintainer to adjust it. I called the electrician and the signal maintainer. The signal maintainer lived in the neighborhood and was there in a few minutes. The electrician called and said that the streets were really icy and it looked like it could be hours before he could make it to CR. I called to tell the operator that the electrician was hours away and find out if they were able to do anything about the bridge. Not yet, and now 608 (C&O Chicago-Grand Rapids passenger train) was pulling up to a stop.

The operator had worked there forever as did the signal maintainer. They knew as much about the bridge as anybody. I asked the operator if he thought that 608 pulling onto the bridge and stopping might move it enough to drop the bridge in place. He thought so and asked the signal maintainer what he thought. The signal maintainer agreed. I asked if they could get the rail locks manually at his end of the bridge. They were sure they could and would give it a try and let me know. They got the rail locks and wound off the derail; they were ready to try it. I had them tell the engineer of 608 what was up and left how far to pull onto the bridge and stop up to them.

608 pulled onto the bridge and stopped. The bridge dropped into place and the signal maintainer and operator locked up the other end of the bridge. Away went 608, a half hour late, on the way to Grand Rapids.

Just another day at the railroad.

TAW

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that's a good storey got more. Richard

Tom:

That is "railroading"... just get it done safely! Great story.

Take Care, Stay Safe, Have Fun!

Larry

Doesn't that Calumet River looks like a sewer!

MEKoch Wrote:
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> Doesn't that Calumet River looks like a sewer!

Ice ?

That is one ugly "body" of water but one really great story! Do you have any more?

boy I bet you'd never get away with that today ;)

I'd say that was probably ice. It doesn't look that bad most of the time, and there's something about that picture that just looks COLD!

I should have titled this response "Using an ocean liner to close a drawbridge permanently", because that's what happened to the bridge in question. Whether it wasn't raised high enough or the ship was too close to it, the bridge met its end wrapped around the headhouse of a Cyprian ocean liner in May 1988.

phthithu Wrote:
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> Wow very interesting story. Look at all those
> bridges on the river. All they all railroad
> bridges?

Closest - a double track Strauss bascule with a train on it is B&O. Behind that, two vertical lift-NYC. Behind that a double track vertical lift - PRR. Behind that, the high bridge is the Chicago Skyway- Interstate 90.

TAW