Tie Rod Anchor Plates (Structural Retaining Stars) on Brick Buildings

Some terms for the anchor plates: Structural Retaining Stars, Gib Plates, Hurricane Bolts, Pattress Plates, Masonry Restraints and Tie Backs. [AlliedBolt]

 

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I found this building being remodeled on Goose Island. It is the first building I have seen in Chicago that has tie rod anchor plates. In fact, it has two different types.

It has big ones in vertical columns and little ones near the top along the roof line. The little ones help fasten little rods in the wood beams of the roof to the brick wall to hold up the roof. These are further described below.

I believe the vertical tie plates terminate tie rods that run completely through the brick walls inside the building. This helps hold in the outer walls and provide reinforcement for the interior walls.

Tsongas Industrial History Center posted

For those following our #MillYardMonday posts, sorry we missed one yesterday! Today is Tuesday, but it's the perfect time to learn about tie rods. You may have noticed the black metal knobs that dot the sides of mill buildings at evenly spaced intervals. These knobs are actually the protruding ends of objects called tie rods. The rods were used to secure floor support beams to the mill walls. Builders attached the rods to the beams and then pushed them through the wall, securing them to the outside in a way similar to using nuts and bolts. By attaching the tie rods this way, builders essentially anchored the floor beams to the walls. Eventually this building method was used less often as some believed that, in mill fires, tie rods actually caused more damage to the building. If the wooden floor beams sagged, snapped, or burned, it was likely they would pull down the walls with them since they were attached by the rods. The decision to stop using tie rods in construction made it more likely that the walls of a mill would remain standing after a fire, even if all the floor beams burned away.

In this image of the Boott Mill you can look to the left and see the ends of tie rods scattered across the building. This continues along the whole length of the structure as well as on the opposite side of the mill!

Note the tie plates in these mills run horizontally along the floor lines. The Chicago building must have been built after this lesson was learned and only the roof is tied into the outer walls. They switched to rods through the walls to help hold the outer walls from buckling outwards.

I first saw tie plates in a building in a small town in Illinois. (After a lot of searching in my picture folders, I discovered it was in Indiana.) Of course, I can't remember which town that was. I had gotten out to take pictures of railroad structures along a north/south railroad when I spotted it across the street. These are some of the buildings I came across while looking for the building I wanted to find.

In this building the tie rods with their plates seem to have been used for repairs. Note the cluster on the corner between the second and third floor. There is also a vertical set of tie plates in the lower-right corner.

(20141017 0061, Streetview)

The IC Depot in Mattoon, IL.

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One of the back shop buildings in IC's Paducah's shops has plates along the left side and along the bottom of the end wall. In this case, there is probably something heavy on the inside that has been mounted to the wall, and the mount needed the extra strength of a tie rod and plate.

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In North Baltimore, OH, I was taking a picture of the 1892 cut stone building, but I notice the building to the right has a couple of tie rod plates by the window.


But looking at a Streetview, they must be for a repair job rather than for the original construction.

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A block to the west is an old industrial building. (Unfortunately, it is currently vacant and for sale. I hope a developer can reuse it as an antique shop, wedding reception hall, or whatever building depending on the layout of the interior. People near Chicago have weddings in Streator, IL, even if some of the guests have to stay in Peru or Ottawa, IL because an industrial building was converted to a (relatively) reasonably priced "event center.") This view is looking to the northwest across the CSX/B&O mainline through town.

In this view of the east side, I see some tie plates that were used for repair ---- three horizontal ones on the right and at least two vertical ones on the left. (There may be more vertical ones behind the tree.)

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A side building of the Tampa Bay depot has a few along the top. The foreground is one of the platforms and its shelter.

(20151225 7772) (I spent Christmas Day driving around Tamp Bay because traffic would be light and because I had been to Busch Gardens the previous year.)

These two buildings in Newburgh, IN, have two types of plates. The one on the left has a couple of the typical star plates. The one on the right has six, green "daisy flower" plates.

(20140811 0493)  Streetview

Bingo. This is the building I had in mind. This is the first one I noticed with tie rod plates on the side. And this appears to be the bad design described by the Tsongas Industrial Historical Center comment above where the floor and roof beams are tied into the walls.

(20141108 0183) Streetview

The middle of the hydro-electric plant in Marseilles, IL, has two rows of tie plates along the top. But in this case I think it is to mount something heavy on the inside of the building.

(20140627 0056) Streetview

Attribution: Oosoom, CC BY_SA 3.0
Tie rods and anchor plates in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral

Tie rods have good tensile strength and bad compression strength whereas masonry has good compression strength and bad tensile strength. Like reinforced concrete, they can be used together to produce a much stronger building.

I have a lot more pictures of brick buildings. But they were just a brick facade over a steel frame (effectively short skyscrapers). The brick in these older buildings with tie rods are probably load bearing walls built in the 1800s and early 1900s, and the rods are the only steel (wrought iron if old enough) in the structure. I assume that if tie rods were not used, more courses of brick would be needed in the walls to withstand lateral loads such as wind load. I wonder how well masonry buildings with tie rods survive earthquakes. (Masonry buildngs without tie rods don't survive.)

An 18-page .pdf sounded interesting, but when I clicked the "Download button," it asked for private information. A 201-page .pdf is more information than I'm willing to look at. I skimmed an 8-page .pdf and noticed that vertical ties are more effective at resisting earthquakes than horizontal ties.

1976 Photo by Robert Daly via DeBruler

Liverpool Junction Tower: CFER/CSX/PRR vs Aban/CR/NYC/MC (Joliet Cutoff)

(John Haynes Track Diagram, Satellite)
NorthAmericanInterlockings:  see photo below
Chicago and Northern Indiana Railroad Interlocking Towers (click the marker for the correct information)

William Shapotkin posted
While I admit the quality leaves a lot to be desired, to-date this is the ONLY image of the Liverpool, IN tower (MC Joliet Cut-off/PRR Xing) -- and darn it if it was not found in a non-NYC or PRR fan magazine.

William Shapotkin posted again
Craig Cloud Liverpool was jct NYC and NKP I believe, I thought JC was MC line Detroit thru Porter. Later, PC TT was Ivanhoe Branch then Secondary. Also, EJ&E a predecessor Joliet Cutoff.
Mike Kasrich Liverpool was NYC and PRR. Joliet Branch and the Ft. Wayne to Chicago line.
Gregg Leech I remember as a kid, probably late sixties, a Penn Central freight train hit an earthmover near the Liverpool crossing. My dad took me to see the mess. I think it's when I-65 was under construction. I wish I had pics.

Wayne Hudak posted three pictures concerning Liverpool, IN, with the comment:

A pair of former Reading RR units lead an eastbound freight at the small hamlet of Liverpool in Northwest Indiana. They have just crossed the former Michigan Central Joliet Cutoff. At one time there was a tower there.

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1910+1956 UP/CGW/SPB&T Hoffman (Pig's Eye) Bridge over Mississippi River at St. Paul, MN

(Bridge Hunter, Historic Bridges, John Marvig, John Weeks III, 3D Satellite)

SPB&T = St. Paul Bridge & Terminal Railway

"The St. Paul Bridge & Terminal Railway built the bridge between 1909 and 1910. It was leased to the Chicago Great Western in 1935. The CGW merged with the Chicago & North Western in 1968, and the bridge became Union Pacific property when it purchased the C&NW in 1995." [BridgeHunter] Bridge Hunter comments indicate the current 400' swing span was installed in 1956.

 

John Weeks IIII
This photo is "from early summer of 2011 when the Mississippi River was at a high water level. The photo above shows the main swing span and the truss span on the east side of the river crossing.

A photo with a more normal river level.

John Weeks IIII
401' (122m) Swing Span

The swing span has been replaced. The last rehabilitation was in 1982. But a swing span would have been replaced by a lift span in the 1980s. So it is not clear when it was replaced.

Jordan Palmer posted
Thanks much for the add! Here is a shot I captured last summer of the former CGW Swingbridge over the Mississippi in St. Paul, Minnesota, still used numerous times every day by the Union Pacific.David Kelzenberg This bridge is indeed at St. Paul. It is downstream from the former CGW lift bridge downtown, which is under the Robert St. (US 52) bridge. THIS bridge connects the former CGW line from the south to the UP yard by Pigs Eye lake (and the big CP former Milw. yard).

Kirk Brust commented on the above posting
Hope this helps...
[It sure did, I "liked" it.]

3D Satellite

Marty Bernard posted
3. G. A. Mower going through Great Western drawbridge, St. Paul circa 1900.
Photographs and captions from the Minnesota Historical Society

Dennis DeBruler commented on Marty's post
The road bridge in the background appears to be gone. But the RR bridge still stands. And this satellite image shows that it is still used.
https://www.google.com/.../@44.9168121,-93.../data=!3m1!1e3

Marty Bernard posted
6. St. Paul Bridge and Terminal Railroad Company bridge, South St. Paul, circa 1923.
Photographs and captions from the Minnesota Historical Society.
Marty Bernard shared

John Marvig comment in Bridge Hunter

Dennis Kilbridge posted
So St Paul Minnesota July 2008 Hoffman Swing Bridge open for river traffic Mississippi River. Got hit by a runaway barge about one year ago but they were able to repair. I'll see if I can find the pic.

A barge allided with a pier and sheared the top of the pier off. The truss remained attached to the pier remnant and thus it became skewed.

Dennis commented on his posting

Trains has another view of the damaged pier.

The barge also had a "boo boo."

Dennis commented on his posting

I don't know what the yellow flag signals to the oncoming train.

Dennis commented on his posting

Dennis commented on his posting
Bridge tender controls for this swing bridge.

Kelly Busche / Pioneer Press, TwinCities (source)
[A locomotive derailed and punctured its fuel tank causing a spill of 3,200 gallons of diesel fuel into the Mississippi River.]

Andrew Koetz posted two photos with the comment: "Hoffman Swing Bridge in St. Paul, MN. during the 1997 flood of the Mississippi River. The first shot I took through a 20 X 60 spotting scope with a fixed optic, the second one I shot with my standard 50 MM lens on my Pentax K1000. In the second shot, the bridge is roughly about in the middle straight back over the second aircraft hangar."

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Angel Binner posted, cropped
Name that bridge!!!
[Pig's Eye was the answer. There are several comments about the railroads not opening this (and other) bridges in a timely fashon.]

St. Paul inpsections map - 2023 labels it as a Rock Island bridge. So was RI another owner of the SPB&T?

Flood of 2024

19:31 video @ 16:01

Big4: Big Four Timetable including Map, an Overview

DeBruler

Big Four is the nickname for the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway

Big Four was controlled by NYC and eventually owned by NYC.

History by Classic Streamliners

Brian Carson posted

Ron Anderson asked on a post concerning the Big Four Depot in Bloomington, IL as to why it was named the Big Four. The answers are worth repeating:

Comments on a post by Bill Molony

Bill Edrington posted four pictures with the comment:

Excerpts from an 1895 Big Four public timetable, including schedules of passenger trains between Indianapolis and St. Louis. The "Short Line" between Hillsboro and Lenox Tower (Mitchell) didn't open until 1904, so at this time all trains ran via Litchfield, Gillespie, Bunker Hill and East Alton on what later became known as the "Old Line". I grew up hearing stories about the "Knickerbocker" and the "Mattoon Accommodations" from my great uncle, who was born in Litchfield in 1888, and I have fond memories of trains on both the Old Line and the Short Line.

Bill Edrington The number of through trains on the Big Four was even more impressive from the 1920s through the early-to-mid-1950s, although the all-stops "accommodation trains" began to disappear fairly early because of competition from interurban lines and private automobiles.
Jacob Hortenstine Litchfield was once home to the Big Four car shops if memory serves me right was moved toMattoon after shortline nuilt
Bill Edrington The car shop was actually moved to Mattoon in 1871, after the Indianapolis & St. Louis had built its line from Indianapolis to Terre Haute, took over the St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute, and established Mattoon as the crew change point roughly halfway between Indianapolis and St. Louis. David Settlemire bought the shop building in Litchfield and operated it as the Litchfield Car Works for a number of years, before shutting it down and moving the business to Mt. Vernon.

It always struck me that Big Four got the little railroads that NYC or PRR did not snarf up.

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Note the Kankakee & Seneca route and their use of the IC tracks to access the Chicago market. This clearly shows the Egyptian Line from Cairo to Danville with continuation on NYC tracks to the Chicago market. And the little branch to Vincennes that has the Wabash Cannonball Bridge.

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Bill Edrington posted
I've noticed that several members of this group have recently viewed some photos of the Big Four "Chicago East" line that I posted back in November 2017. Since that time, a group devoted specifically to the former Big Four lines has been formed and is very active. I'd encourage NYC fans who are interested in the Big Four to join: Fans of the New York Central's Big Four Lines.
[Unfortunately, the resolution of these maps is "almost readable." But you can see the routes.]

Raymond Barr posted two images with the comment: "Here are a couple of blueprint-type schematics done in the early 1950s by the New York Central Railroad of its SALINE COUNTY coal mine customers."

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