BCK CP-Draw: (Bridge Hunter, 1915 Strauss design; 3D Satellite, still used)
NKP: (Bridge Hunter, 1913 Scherzer design; 3D Satellite, abandoned in favor of the adjacent bridge)
2 of 3 photos posted by Brian R. Wrobleski with the comment: "More of my random shots off my phone."
 |
| a |
 |
| b |
 |
| TrainWeb |
 |
| Nick Ariemma posted
CSX still uses the original NYC lift bridge over the Buffalo River. Now designated as CP-1.
Red Jacket Park, Buffalo, NY
05.30.19 Hugh Guillaume The NYC River Bridge is on what is referred to as the Compromise Tracks which date back to when the NYC&HRRR and LS&MSRY used different gauges. Most CSX main line trains use the former Buffalo Creek tracks from CP437 to what used to be S.S. BC, now CP2. The Buffalo Creek River Bridge is in use. The NKP River Bridge is permanently raised and has been out of service for many years. NYC S.S. RB was/is at M.P. 1.65(Lines West chaining, originally LS&MSRY). Hugh Guillaume Compromise Branch(tracks between 4'8 1/2" gauge and 4' 9" gauge) begins at Main Line M.P. 437.2(former S.S. 49, originally S.S. 48 before construction of Central Terminal) and runs 2.1 miles via NYC River Bridge to S.S. BC at Main Line M.P 2.127. |
 |
| Cori Willson posted 1950s Buffalo River Brian R. Wroblewski shared New York Central River Bridge over the Buffalo River, now owned by CSX. |
 |
| Brian R. Wroblewski commented on Cori's post New York Central River Bridge or Signal Station RB over the Buffalo River. It's still there, now owned by CSX. |
 |
| Brian R. Wroblewski posted Bruce asked about the bridge at "CP-1" on the Buffalo River. Here's all of them, including CP-1. This bridge in particular was built by the New York Central as "River Bridge" or "RB" for short. In the past during the ConRail days after "rationalization" in the 80s, they would call it "Main Line River Bridge". In the modern days I've heard the maintainers call it "The Bridge at CP-1" or just "CP-1" on the radio when they call for permission to lift it, as in "Maintainer at CP-1 to the NG dispatcher, over." A "CP" on a railroad is a "Control Point" which means it is a spot where something exists in the physical plant on the ground that requires some sort of signaling & control. This could be an interlocking plant where tracks cross over to one another, or like in this case a lift bridge. Back in the old times they'd have been controlled by a signal station (tower) that was manned 24/7. Now, electronics & modern communications have made it possible to control the signals & switches by remote from a dispatcher's panel thousands of miles away. In the case of these bridges, a signal maintainer will drive over & lift them the old way by using a control stand inside the shacks next to the bridge. They call dispatch on the radio, get permission, get a signal blocking device applied to the bridge electronically, unlock it, lift it, lower it, have the SBD removed via radio, walk the bridge & check the miter joints, & then drive over to the other bridge at CP-Draw & do it again. I've got them on my youtube channel. https://youtu.be/sjn6NAz5A14Doug O. Dean: Before the clerks were abolished they used to operate the bridges at Draw and CP1. Of course they got that job when the bridge operators and tower operators were abolished... Marcus Gillebaard: Myself and Gregory Lund started our railroad careers as Conrail Tower Operators back in the late 70's We operated both the Central bridge as well as the BCK "Crick" bridge (now CP-Draw) on a regular basis. They were really fun jobs and we both have a lot of fond memories of people, boats, trains and other things we experienced back then. Raising and lowering those bridges was really fun to do! Brian R. Wroblewski posted again Here's all the railroad bridges (or what's left of them) over the Buffalo River. CP-Draw & CP-1 are the only 2 left "in service" today. |
 |
| Eric Moeller commented on Brian's May 2023 post, cropped Patra Mangus: Eric Moeller Us "ward rats" called these the "twin bridges" |
Three of the sixteen photos posted by Brian R. Wroblewski.
Further down river, we caught the tug Morrish with her loaded mud barge at CSX's CP-Draw & then at River Bridge. They got through Draw right away but had to wait for a CSX train on River Bridge. After they got thru the second bridge, CSX ran a stack train over track 3 that stopped & made a reverse move into the siding South of the bridge. The light was weird with dark clouds surrounded by bright spots that only lasted a few seconds making the photography pretty challenging. This was the best I could do.
were is that at?
Red Jacket park at the foot of Smith St. in South Buffalo.
where are the bridges controlled from? Is everything remote from Jacksonville now?
John Broxup
no, they both have control cabins. Draw's is original (with new electronics & control stand) & RB's is brand new all the way around. They're both on the North side of the river, right at the bridges.John Broxup
the bridges are so old that they don't always reset properly when they come down & there has to be someone there to check everything. They send a signal maintainer there to lift it & when he puts one back down, they usually double check the miter joints personally by walking the bridge & looking at them & then he calls the NG & asks if everything on his end shows as reset. Then he removes the BD & they can start running the trains when everything looks good. |
| Dan Gurley posted A fire boat pulling double duty as an ice cutter passes beneath a railroad drawbridge in Buffalo NY. Scott Balzan photo from Twitter C Kent McKenzie That's the famous Buffalo Fire Department fire boat "Edward Cotter," that was originally built in 1900, making it the oldest in-service fire boat in the US. Dan Gurley C Kent McKenzie was the Twitter caption referring to it as an ice cutter correct, then? C Kent McKenzie Dan, yes, the Cotter is also used as an icebreaker on Buffalo's rivers to reduce/prevent ice-jam flooding. Fire boats are often built to serve dual-duty as icebreakers in areas where icing is a problem. Dominic Nappo posted Not a truck, but it is the world’s oldest active fireboat built in 1900. (Buffalo NY) [This post has several photos of the fireboat in drydock in the comments.] Jim Myers shared |
Brian R. Wroblewski shared
Here's some shots of the dredge tug working in the upper reach of the Buffalo River yesterday. In the second half of these pics, you'l see CSX's bridge at CP-1, formerly NYC's "River Bridge" that carried the main lines of the Central on a double track draw bridge built in 1916. These bridges rarely go up & down anymore except for contractor jobs like this or icebreaking with the fireboat.
Thanks for these bridge opening shots. I have never seen a shot before. I had guessed there was no industry to be serviced.
Author
Dewey McIlwee
currently, there isn't anymore. The last active dock up there received windmill parts by boat in 2012. They still have to dredge because the Fireboat needs to be able to go all the way up river to the head of navigation to break ice in the winter time & they also have contractors doing environmental remediation that take large marine construction equipment up there when there's a job to do. |
| a |
 |
| b |
 |
| c |
 |
| Flickr Photo taken by Sunghwan Yoon, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) "The bridge is still in heavy use of train traffic." [Bridge Hunter] |
 |
| Cleveland State University Library Photograph Collection via Bridge Hunter [BCK is on the right.] |
 |
| Cleveland State University Library Photograph Collection via Bridge Hunter [NKP is on the left; BCK is on the right.] |
 |
| Jiff Picka posted Bridges over the Buffalo River as seen from Red Jacket Riverfront Park in Buffalo NY. The raised bridge is the now-disused New York, Chicago, and St Louis bridge, over which once ran Nickel Plate services to Cleveland, Fort Wayne, and Chicago and PRR services to Pittsburgh. The lowered bridge is the Buffalo Creek RR bridge, which was jointly owned by the Erie and the Lehigh Valley. It provided access for the LV and Erie to the grain elevators at the port of Buffalo, and also served trains running along the Erie to Jamestown and along the B&O for Pittsburgh. Jan Olejnik: Wonder how many zillion trains have been over it... Jeff Picka: Mostly freights, I would imagine. The typical passenger frequency over the raised bridge would be 4 NP and 4 PRR trains per day, while the other would have had 2 Erie and 4 B&O trains per day. The nearby LS&MS bridge would have had over 50 per day. Tim Shanahan shared |
 |
| Andrew Toppan commented on a post Buffalo, NY |
No comments:
Post a Comment