Nostalgia & History > Burying The Wood

Picture 1 is from the website,
 
http://gallery.alleganyhistory.org/album/Towns%20and%20Villages/Belfast/Railroad 
 
Picture 1, “"Burying the Wood" Erie Belfast Trestle The following postcards, photos & information is shared by Mary Nangle, President-Belfast Historical Society. Some of the postcards are (more).”  [I couldn’t get the more button to work.] 
 

---

Didn’t they have pile drivers?  Did they just dig a hole and bury the poles for the bridge?  Didn’t they have steam shovels?  Did the stationary steam engines help dig the holes? 
 
Picture 2, lower left portion of picture 1 enlarged.
 

---

Picture 3, lower right portion of picture 1 enlarged. 
 

---

Picture 4, upper right portion of picture 1 enlarged.

---

It appears from the picture that they constructed a conventional wooden pile trestle and used it to dump fill around the trestle. Nothing unusual.

It is not a pile trestle, it is a framed trestle.  A framed trestle is built up of sticks, usually sawn square (but vertical members may be round).  It is built entirely above ground.  If the ground is firm enough it may it may rest directly upon the ground, or upon a wooden grillage foundation, or it may rest on a stone or cement foundation or upon pilings which have previously been driven into the ground.

Before the development of todays mammoth earthmoving equipment it was common practice to build a pile or framed wooden trestle over a swale, lay track over to trestle, and dump trainloads of earth off the trestle to create the fill as seen in the above photo.  Dirt can be seen pouring off the side dump cars near the locomotive.

Even today, when walking an abandoned or poorly maintained line it is sometimes possible to locate the exact positions of the rotting out timbers by finding circular depressions or even holes big enough to put your unwary foot into,

-John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/16 11:17 by LarryDoyle.

This was done to the wooden trestle on the KP just East of the Salt Mine at Kanopolis, KS. upkpfan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/16 19:38 by upkpfan.

Where specifically was this Erie Belfast Trestle?  Is this line still in use?

Jeff