Hi Mike,
I want to follow up on your last sentence of 50 years for a trestle
location. You are probably looking at the third timber bridge in
that location.
When the line was built in the late 1800's or early 1900's the piling
and bridge timbers were untreated wood. Even a dense species wood
such as Oak or cypress would have a working life of 10 to 15
years. These were called "white" bridges because the wood weathered
to a light grey color. As the bridge aged, if before about 1915, it
was again replaced, probably with a untreated bridge material. And
also due to load increases the pile bents went from 4 to 5 piling per
bent and the stringer cords went to larger timbers or from a two pack
to a three pack stringer.
By WWI bridges would have been replaced by treated timbers, but still
there was only a life of about 30 years. So you can see a bridge
location 50 years old has probably had about three trestles in that location.
This was standard railroad construction for any line. Some RR's have
more or/less resources and/or higher standards.
Ted
> It seems such an awful waste to build lines such as the branch to
> Gardiner MT that i was exploring the other evening used for a mere
> 50 years, abandoned and all the bridges chopped down.
>
>Thanks
>Mike Pannell
>
Rails Unlimited
Ted Schnepf
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