A Slight Change in Strasburg Operations......

S. Weaver · **Posted:** Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:32 am

Well wonder no more ... We've been a little busy with this project to reply. Here's a shot of the western approach and abutment location. One can see the new ballast lifts needed to raise the rail profile.

Afboone · **Posted:** Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:45 am

Steve, did you guys find any good artifacts during the dig?

S. Weaver · **Posted:** Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:44 am

Funny you should ask - the 0.625 spike is contemporary. The other spike came out of the east abutment fill. While probably not from the @1850's laydown, it may come from the rail that was in place prior to receiving the 1910 PRR realignment rail. (Around 1910, PRR realigned its mainline. SRC inherited some of the mainline rail, 85 lbs stuff, the last of which is still on the Leaman Place curve. You could tell it by its size, wear and bond points.)

S. Weaver · **Posted:** Fri Nov 04, 2011 4:00 pm

A shot of the south aspect this afternoon ...

Mike Tillger · **Posted:** Fri Nov 04, 2011 4:24 pm

Very Nice, was that precast or formed on site?
Thanks,
Mike Tillger

James Quay · **Posted:** Sat Nov 05, 2011 11:46 pm

Nice looking, I'm glad I took photo's and video of the old one. Where did the PRR main line run before 1910?

John S. · **Posted:** Mon Nov 07, 2011 1:19 pm

Strasburg dose nice work. Can't wait to ride over it.

S. Weaver · **Posted:** Mon Nov 07, 2011 5:50 pm

@Mike, precast.
@James, all over the place. The 1890 atlas of Lancaster County can dial you in. Also, a couple of hours on Google Earth will pick up old fills and what not.
@John, thank you, sir.

Erection was completed today. Tomorrow they tighten up the HDG gibplates and finish the backfill.

Howard P. · **Posted:** Mon Nov 07, 2011 8:16 pm

Very nice work; the ballasted deck will be a big improvement over the bridge timbers. It looks very DL&W or NYW&B-like-- and just 100 years after those marvels of concrete railroad construction were new.

Howard P.
B&B Dept.
NAUG

EDM · **Posted:** Mon Nov 07, 2011 10:41 pm

Howard, you beat me to it; I got a Lackawanna impression, myself.

John S. · **Posted:** Tue Nov 08, 2011 12:25 am

I was thinking the new bridge look like PRR or Reading , by the books I have looked at through the years.

Question how far out did the old Strasburg line go?

S. Weaver · **Posted:** Tue Nov 08, 2011 11:32 am

@Howard and EDM, the DL&W is intentional.
@John, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "far out." We basically occupy the same footprint, with some loss in the borough itself.

Larry Lovejoy · **Posted:** Tue Nov 08, 2011 12:34 pm

While I'm sure you haven't yet captured all of the project costs, what do you expect will be the final cost of the bridge and associated work? What were the funding sources?

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Tue Nov 08, 2011 12:47 pm

Quote:

What were the funding sources?

Pennsy Power wrote:

The bridge is now being replaced as part of the 1 million dollar grant the railroad received to upgrade their line for freight shipments. The bridge and railroad is fine to support the passenger trains but 100 and 150 ton freight cars pounding the line is another story hence the grant and upgrades. The new bridge coming in is a prefabricated bridge but I don’t know any more than that. The railroad is also supposed to upgrade the track at Leaman Place. Here is a quote from an article from Lancaster New Era dated Nov. 10, 2010.

“The matching grant is for $1 million from the state, Weaver said, with an additional $500,000 coming from Strasburg Rail Road. The money, Weaver said, will enhance the track to better accommodate the needs of freight service."Basically, it's to rebuild some of our infrastructure that's worn down," he said. Also, he said, the track isn't up to standards for modern freight. The project includes rehabilitation of the main track, the junction with Norfolk Southern and a rail bridge, part of which dates back to the mid-19th century. It also will increase the capacity of the freight terminal.”

Chris Webster · **Joined:** Sat Aug 25, 2007 12:45 am **Posts:** 1087

Mike Tillger wrote:

Very Nice, was that precast or formed on site?

It looks like a Con/Span, which are precast at the factory and very quickly dropped in place.