UP/Alton Global 4 Intermodal Yard

Satellite

I label this both rrAlton and rrUP because it is built along the route that the 1928 Alton owned, but the yard has been built by UP after they bought the route. Even though it is relatively new as far as railroad facilities go, Dan indicates that it is being expanded.

Dan Tracy posted two photos with the comment: "Couple of shots showing the expansion project at Global 4 on 9-23-18. Shots taken from Millsdale Road."
Tom Meyer Good stuff! Thanks so much for sharing! This expansion is in part to accommodate the additional traffic secured with the new O.N.E, (Ocean Network Express) contract. This too may also include the final transition of the last North/South O/D Train pairs currently handled in the small/antiquated Yard Center Facility, as promised for quite some time..........

Global 4 had already made Canalport obsolete. It is now just used for storage to support Global 1.

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Nick Hart posted

After a wait at Pine Junction, westbound CSXT Q191-20 is on the move as it makes its way towards the destination of Global 4 in Joliet. UP 6706 leads the way, which is the last patched AC4400CW in CNW paint.

CSXT Barr Sub
Gary, IN
04-20-19
Dennis DeBruler It is nice to learn that containers are now crossing Indiana on steel wheels instead of rubber wheels.

Johnny Hansen posted
BNSF 1605 and 1717, former Santa Fe SD40-2’s, now H4 scheme SD40-2’s work the autorack pulldown at BNSF Logistics Park Chicago on a cloudy thanksgiving morning.
11/26/20
[Street View]

In Sept 2020, I got hit with a Double Doomsday. Both Facebook and Google changed their software. I said "changed" instead of "updated" because the new software is not better. In fact, Google's Blogger software is far worse except for a search function that works. Specifically, it has three bugs concerning photos and their captions. So I'm no longer copying photos and interesting comments from Facebook. I'm just saving the link. I hope you can see posts in Private Groups.

Five photos of a train northeast of Normal that was delivering parts for new cranes   It was a short train transporting just these parts.

NYC/LS&MS Ashtabula River Bridge Disaster

1866: (Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

1904: (Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

Roy Kessmann posted four photos with the comment:

Ashtabula, Ohio Bridge disaster 1876
The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway designed a bridge to cross the Ashtabula Creek in 1865.The Chief Engineer reviewed the design and declared it unsafe. The CEO of the railroad said to build it anyway. The bridge design was based upon wooden structures in use at the time but wrought iron was used for the structural members instead. No one really knew the strength of wrought iron at the time for a given thickness. The bridge was a two track affair having a height of 70 feet over the creek. In a freezing, howling blizzard on Friday, December 28, 1876 train #5, the Pacific Express approached the bridge Westbound being pulled by two engines: The Socrates and the Columbia. Four helper engines were used in getting the 11 car train through the snow drifts on its way from Buffalo. In the process of crossing the bridge it failed due to metal fatigue. The first engine made it across but the rest of the train fell into the gorge. The wreck caught on fire from the non compliant stoves that were used in the coaches. The railroad had a policy that wrecks that caught on fire would be left to burn themselves out in complete disregard for the passengers. The town of Ashtabula brought a steam pumper as well as a paddle pumper to the sight. However, the Chief, an alcoholic, never gave the order to pump water. So a volunteer organization went to help save the passengers. A few were pulled out of the wreck safely. However, most succumbed to fire or injuries suffered from wreckage trapping them. It is not known exactly how many souls were lost. But estimates range up to 200. What is disgusting is that thieves combed the wreck sight to take valuables from the dead and the living. It was thought that the Chief Engineer of the railroad committed suicide. But the coroners report was not opened until 1890 and disclosed that the individual was murdered. The bridge designer committed suicide 7 years after the wreck.

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[Some bridges were tested by stringing a bunch of locomotives across the entire length. Maybe they knew this one would not handle that.]

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Wreckage in Ashtabula creek. One engine, bridge structure, railcars, and humans.

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Fire breaks out from non compliant stoves in railcars.

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Bridge abutments after fire burns out.

Bridge Hunter has several more photos including the wood replacement that burned in 1895 and a replacement "fishbelly" deck truss.

Trains Magazine posted
Of all the railroad disasters of the 19th century, perhaps none was as notorious as Dec. 29, 1876, when Lake Shore & Michigan Southern's Pacific Express plunged through a flimsy Howe truss bridge at Ashtabula, Ohio. A new documentary explores the tragedy, with the assistance of the Age of Steam Roundhouse museum. Kevin Keefe writes about Ashtabula in this week's Mileposts blog: https://cs.trains.com/.../honoring-the-legacy-of... 

Trains Magazine
"An 1876 newspaper illustration captures the moment when the Pacific Express fell into Ashtabula Creek."
[The Trains article is about a 2-hour PBS documentary that airs 8pm EST on Dec 29, 2022, the 146^th anniversary of the tragedy.]

EngineeringTragedy
The trailer for the PBS show
There are several more clips here.

The current bridge is obviously on a route that avoids crossing a gorge.

Shane Simmons Flickr via BridgeHunter-1904, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA)

BNSF/CB&Q 1906 Trestle Replacement in Barnhart, MO

(Bridge Hunter, Satellite)

Street View

Mark T Pillow posted photos and videos with the comment:

This is a photo story of the replacement of a 112 year old trestle in Barnhart, MO
It's sad to see it go but it's been on fire a few times and was beginning to lilt.

Harvey HenkelmannHarvey and 219 others joined RAILROAD BRIDGES, TRESTLES, TUNNELS AND CUTS within the last two weeks. Give them a warm welcome into your community! Looks like they're replacing it with a UCEB. [Ugly Concrete Eyesore Bridge]
At least they replaced it instead of abandoning the line.

Mark T PillowMark and 219 others joined RAILROAD BRIDGES, TRESTLES, TUNNELS AND CUTS within the last two weeks. Give them a warm welcome into your community! it takes coal to rush island, "river run" from stl

Mark T PillowMark and 219 others joined RAILROAD BRIDGES, TRESTLES, TUNNELS AND CUTS within the last two weeks. Give them a warm welcome into your community! I've heard a few trains tonight, i guess rail traffic back... sometime in the next month i expect the road under it to be open again

The videos are in reverse order.

Screnshot

Photo, this is probably from the video that shows them discovering that the beam is too long and they put it back on the pile.

Screenshot, Grove 7550

WE Energies Dam on Pine River and Hydro Dams

(Satellite)  Note the long inlet channel to the powerhouse penstocks. It must have been rainy because the dam is spilling a lot more water than is going through the powerhouse.

Doug Kearney posted three photos with the comment:

Grove RT875E working on the Pine river dam for WE Energies in Florence, WI. A lot goes into setting it up. They had to haul the barge sections down the hill, launch them, then roll the crane on board. You can see the ramps on far shore. Driving the crane down the hill was probably a bit of an adventure.

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"Near Florence" is relative. It struck me as being rather far away until I saw how few towns were in the area. I noticed that there are some bigger, closer powerhouses. And they also are spilling a lot of water.

Satellite

Satellite

I almost missed the powerhouse for this one because it is downstream, and I do not see an intake structure for the penstocks.

Satellite

Satellite
This reservoir needed some "helper" side dams.

So the Pine River Dam is one of WE Energies smaller reservoirs.

BNSF/GN 1899 Gassman Coulee Trestle near Minot, ND

(Bridge Hunter, no Historic Bridges, Satellite)

Street View
There is no problem with treelines blocking the view in this area.

Monte Jones posted
Minot, N.D. 1936 Gassman Coulee Trestle Bridge
Kent Farley: This photograph appears in the books "Lines West" by Charles R Wood and "Great Northern Lines East" by Patrick C Dorin. The locomotive is identified as a simple articulated Mallet (pronounced mal-lay'), an R-2 class on the Great Northern. The sixteen R-2 class locomotives were all built by Great Northern and were rated at 153,000 lbs. of tractive effort and measured nearly 120' over the coupler faces. Of the fourteen earlier class R-1's four were built by Baldwin and ten by the GN. They all remained in service into the 1950's. The GN had the biggest and, in terms of tractive effort, the most powerful simple articulateds in the world. (Information taken from "The Great Northern Railway, A Pictorial Study by Charles & Dorothy Wood".)
Daniel A. Mitchell: As others have stated, it's a GN Class R2, a 2-8-8-2 simple articulated.
Tom Lyman shared

The girders between the towers are deeper than the ones on the towers.

I Love Trains posted
photo courtesy of Gregory Owen Johnson
Lynn Johnson: gasmann coulee
William Ellis shared
Quintuple header, anyone?
William Nelson: I believe this is a publicity photo of the first Burlington Northern train operating with locomotives ordered by the Spokane Portland in Seattle railroad but painted in Burlington Northern. They are indeed crossing The trestle near Minot North Dakota and unlike today when they were locomotives in a consist back then they were all online unless they were broken..... No isolating locomotives for fuel conservation in those days that crap didn't start until about 10 years ago.

Bob Krug posted
Amtrak's westbound Empire Builder crossing the Gassman Coulee trestle 4 miles west of the Minot, ND station stop.

Screenshot @ -0:33 from video posted by Justin Nelson
Amtrak’s westbound Empire Builder crossing the Gassman Coulee trestle, just west of Minot, ND this morning. [Aug 18, 2018]

 

Bruce Schwierske posted
BNSF westbound intermodal crossing the Gassman Coulee bridge west of Minot @ 17:07 on August 30, 2024.

Mark Mcgowan posted
The Great Northern's 1,609 foot Gassman Coulee trestle near Minot, N.D. circa 1890.
[Comments say it collapsed in 1896 because of high winds.]
Greg Bahn: Two men are standing on top of the rail cars. Are these the brakeman?
Mark Mcgowan: Greg Bahn probably.

  

Great Northern Railway Historical Society posted two photos with the comment:

This date in Great Northern Railway History- August 14th, 1898:

Wind destroys the wooden Gassman Coulee Trestle, just West of Minot. 

It was replaced soon after with the steel trestle that still carries traffic today.

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DigitalHorizonsOnline

DigitalHorizonsOnline

DigitalHorizonsOnline

DigitalHorizonsOnline

DigitalHorizonsOnline

DigitalHorizonsOnline

Screenshot @ -5:16

Jeremy Siembida posted
Gassman Coulee Trestle, west of Minot, ND on the old GN.
[The posting also has a video of an Amtrak train crossing the trestle.]

Webb Rail LLC - WEBX posted

Minot The Magic City. Former Northern Pacific Railway Budd built dome/coach 549 (WEBX 801045) and former Northern Pacific Railway Budd built Pullman dome/sleeper 313 (WEBX 801044) held the markers on Amtrak Train 7 (Empire Builder) on Saturday, August 2, 2021. The Gassman Coulee Trestle in Minot, North Dakota is 1,792 feet long and 117 feet above ground level at its tallest point. This span served the Great Northern Railway (today owned by BNSF), which was a major factor in the overnight development of Minot from a small town into a major city in the area, and thus the nickname "Magic City". The Webb Rail cars would continue through Spokane, Washington on Amtrak Train 27, and arrive in Portland, Oregon about 25 hours later.

Tag Webb Rail LLC - WEBX or drop us a DM with any photos you caught of us underway. We love to see them!

Photo credit: Marc Glucksman/River Rail Photo

Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/2mhawVr

More on the Webb Rail fleet at www.webbrail.com

Marc Glucksman shared

Bruce Schweirske posted two photos with the comment: "A westbound BNSF grain train, with three locomotives up front and three more mid-train, crosses the Gassman Coulee Bridge west of Minot, North Dakota on August 13, 2020."

Jeremy Siembida Nice catch. That was the first double load I have seen. I bagged it 10 miles west of here.

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Jeremy Siembida posted

The golden color out right now is a consolation prize for the brutal winters here; change my mind...

Portland, OR bound automobiles head west over Gassman Coulee Trestle, just a few miles west of Minot. Photo from private property, with permission.

Jeremy Siembida posted
A hot westbound stack, heavy with UPS, FedEx and other priority traffic storms west over Gassman Coulee.
Jeremy Siembida So I had great light for eastbounds and the only eastbound (which I could see sitting at CP Gassman) zwas waiting on a /fleet/ of westbounds. Oh well..

Bruce Schwierske posted
A little stormy around Minot this morning as this BNSF westbound stack train crosses the Gassman Coulee bridge. 8/13/2020
Jeremy Siembida Made the best out of the day with that one. Nice pop of color.

Jeremy Siembida posted
Golden hour local westbound over Gassman Coulee Trestle.

 

Loren Aandahl posted
This should be familiar to all of you. The Gassman Coulee bridge. My picture from August 1973.

 

Loren Aandahl posted
Gassman Coulee. My photo from August 1973.
Jeremy Siembida: Eastbound, this spot is private property now.

Jeremy Siembida posted two photos with the comment: " 'Up a Creek' South Branch Coulee Creek flows near the iconic Gassman Coulee Trestle, and in winter, the water is stiff enough to give new angles without getting wet.  (Bonus points if you caught Thumper's pun)  In this view, a double grain load grinds out of Minot under increasing snow flurries, following a night of freezing rain."

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Jeremy Siembida posted two photos with the comment: "Eastbound manifest freight  drifts across Gassman Coulee at sunset."

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Empty sand cars roll east.

I wonder when the girders were replaced. Today's girders are thicker between the towers than on top of the towers.

1 of several photos from a BNSF press release about replacing the deck  (source)
Gassman Coulee Trestle built in 1899 is shown in a 1909 postcard.
[A Flickr photo with a crane and two trucks on the trestle]
The deck is up to 120' above the ground.

Jeremy Siembida Flickr 2019 Photo (source) "Just another boring, overcast view of Gassman Coulee Trestle, from private property with permission. I was breaking in my new superwide 14mm lens."

In Sept 2020, I got hit with a Double Doomsday. Both Facebook and Google changed their software. I said "changed" instead of "updated" because the new software is not better. In fact, Google's Blogger software is far worse except for a search function that works. For example, it has three bugs concerning photos and their captions. So I'm no longer copying photos and interesting comments from Facebook. I'm just saving the link. Unfortunately, some of the links are to private groups.

A RR crane doing bridge work