(BNSF+Amtrak)/Santa Fe Abt Trunnions over Old and Middle Rivers at Orwood, CA

Old River: (Bridge Hunter, Historic Bridges, 3D Satellite) Woodward Island Bridge

Middle River: (Bridge Hunter, Historic Bridges, Satellite) Bacon Island Bridge

(Update: page 54 and 55 of the Dec 2021 issue of Trains Magazine had a photo of an Amtrak train crossing "at Middle River, CA, a few miles west of Stockton." Since it was an Abt bridge, I checked it out. The photo in the Train Magazine shows that the track is built on a trestle between these two bridges. The caption says the Amtrak train has to observe a speed restriction over the bridge, but it doesn't say what that restriction is.)

Woodward Island Bridge over Old River

I found this bridge while looking for the Benicia-Marinez Bridge. Since ABT Trunion bridges are rare, any I find are worth noting. It is also rare because the movable span is built with steel girders instead of a truss. Bridge Hunter does not indicate the BNSF predecessor railroad, but my 1928 RR Atlas does show that Santa Fe came north through the center of California and then west through here to Oakland, CA.

DeltaLifestyle

Stan Burton posted
On May 13, 2018 we took a Mother’s Day cruise on Captain Morgan’s Delta Adventures boat “Rosemarie”. They took us out on the Sacramento Delta out of Discovery Bay. While out, I was able to take this photo of westbound BNSF 8144, (ES44C4) and BNSF 7911 (ES44DC) approaching the Old River Bridge near Orwood CA. on the Stockton, or Second sub. Frank Morgan does a great job as Captain Morgan and gives you an incredible three hour tour of the delta.
Dennis DeBruler: Thanks for including the ABT bridge.

Bacon Island Bridge over Middle River

Gordon Osmundson via BridgeHunter-old, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)

This photo not only shows the trestle, but the Old River bridge in the background.

Gordon Osmundson via BridgeHunter-old, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)

In this case, the Old River Bridge is not much more than a black dot in the background.

Street View

Normally, I would skip yet another photo of some sheet metal. But then I noticed the Abt counterweight in the background.

Bernard Wybrecht posted

Amtrak FP7 #123 (ex-SP #6461) is leading the Eastbound San Joaquin over the fire damaged trestle at Middle River. #123 was the only SP FP7 which never wore Amtrak paint.😍

Trestle at Middle River California  May 1976 .Amtrak FP7 #123 (ex-SP #6461) is leading the Eastbound San Joaquin over the fire damaged trestle at Middle River. #123 was the only SP FP7 which never wore Amtrak paint.

Photo credit to Drew Jacksich

And this time I saw the aqueduct pipes that parallel the railroad on the south side. Another reminder that California has to pay a lot for their water supply.

Satellite