Nostalgia & History > SP train over I-10

Feb 78
This freight is between Chaney Jct and Eureka Jct in Houston.
Passing over the impressive structure built for the tracks over I-10.
GP9 3717 leads with a GP30 the fourth unit.

Gary

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Impressive scene.
Bob

Nice shot, for a minute looking at your title I was assuming The State St. Line in the LA Area!

Posted from Android

Nice shot, Gary!

RC Lundgren

Good one. You'd be hard pressed to find that few cars on I-10 these days!
JB

Guessing that this is the bridge shown:

https://goo.gl/maps/4i7bevnnzt2X8MrD8

Can anyone provide insight as to why a railroad bridge over a freeway would be built the way this one is, with two large rectangles covering the roadway and the tracks occupying a relatively small portion of that elevated surface area?  Is the angle of the crossing too skewed to be stable for a conventional deck girder bridge span just a little wider than the tracks?  Is the large surface area intended to "catch" derailments rather than let them fall onto the freeway?  Or is there another reason entirely for doing it this way?

Nice photo, that eclectic mix of power sure is interesting. Always loved seeing SP high hood units mixed in with the low noses.

Nathan

Posted from iPhone

Evan_Werkema Wrote:
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> Can anyone provide insight as to why a railroad
> bridge over a freeway would be built the way this
> one is, with two large rectangles covering the
> roadway and the tracks occupying a relatively
> small portion of that elevated surface area? 

I was wondering the same thing.
My only answer is that Houston loves its concrete.

That's a real time machine photo!

This bridge was already in place when I moved to Houston in 1970, so who knows?  It has survived several I-10 rebuildings.  That same line crosses the freeway again a mile or two west of there and they had to rebuild that bridge when the freeway widened about 20 years ago.