Railroaders' Nostalgia > Kinzua Viaduct tale

The Saluda grade posting reminded me of one of the more outrageous stories I ever heard from a railroader.

This is the high steel viaduct in Pennsylvania, ex-Erie, that went from the main line south to the Pennsylvania coal fields in Brockway.   It was generally parallel to the BR&P, and was 2052 feet long and 301 feet above the creek.   It was abandoned in 1959 when Erie got rights over the BR&P, made into a state park, reopened for a term under the Knox & Kane tourist railroad, closed due to deteriorated condition of the column bases, and was under rehab when it was hit by a tornado in 2003, knocking down the parts of the bridge that hadn't been rehabbed.   The still-standing parts are now accessible in a redone Kinzua Bridge State Park, highly recommended.

BUT, when I was a kid, probably about age 10, I met a friend of my grandmothers, a retired Erie brakeman by the name of Rex Henderson.   He retired off the railroad, and worked most of his lifetime on that line, was in his 80s' by then.   He told me the following story:

"I was brakeman on that line, and we'd have great fun with the greenhorns first trip on that run.  This was still when you had roofwalks and cabooses.   We'd be up in the cupola of the caboose, me and the conductor, and say we saw sparks off a car a few cars ahead of us - and order the new hire up on the caboose roof to go forward and check to make sure the handbrake wasn't on.   This was best done near dark, too.   The object was to get him on top of the train when we went over the bridge and we'd watch from the caboose...
They'd get up walking the roofwalk and we'd get out on the bridge where there's nothing there but air and you'd see them suddenly drop on their stomach and hang onto the roofwalk for dear life, scared to death, and we'd laugh at them".    "that was our official 'welcome to the Erie" on that line."

I was out there a couple weeks ago and the wind was still so high I nearly had my hat blow off and you could feel just a hair of sway movement probably 200' up.   I can't imagine being on top of a moving train with nothing to hang on to!

I had occasion to (legally) access the former New Haven bridge over the Hudson, back before it was made into a state park. I was working on a cleanup site directly under the eastern end. 

Not all all that windy at ground level, but the breeze on the bridge was quite strong. Scary as hell. And that was a double track bridge!

The state park is called “Walkway over the Hudson”. Maybe the Kinzua park could be called “Walkway (almost) Over Kinzua”?

Those railroaders pulling something like that on a newbie, ESPECIALLY on a high bridge where strong winds can happen, tells me they’re pretty lousy men to work with. So much for being part of their “Union brotherhood”—guys like them make the job miserable and sometimes very dangerous. But to them it’s funny…

Posted from iPhone