1979 CFNR/NWP Brazos Bridge over Napa River near Napa, CA

(Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; 3D Satellite)

CFNR = California Northern Railroad

NWP = Northwestern Pacific Railroad

"Built 1979; Rendered inoperable by copper thieves 2007; Reopened for traffic 2009." [BridgeHunter]

Street View

Douglas Butler posted
Unknown source: CN Brazo's Railroad Lift Bridge crossing the Napa River located in Napa, CA.

Why some notes about yet another lift bridge? Because I came across a rather interesting view of this bridge.

Lale Masalar posted
GP -- 9 TAKES WATER :))
Timothy Boles: This is the Brazos bridge near Napa California on the NWP. This is the 2nd incident on that bridge. This was 2 GP9s that the engineer ran the red and went for a swim. This engineer became known as "the Commodore" this was in the early 80's if I remember correctly.
The first incident was in the 50s and someone took 3 brand new Baldwin AS616s and ran the red signal went swimming, with a 100 car train behind them. That engineer became known as "The Admiral".
BTW all the locomotives from both incidents returned to service I think

Gordon Asmundson commented on Bridge Hunter with four photos and the text: "1983 the Schellville turn goes for a swim." (Gordon also provided a URL, but it no longer works.)

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Dan Sabin posted
SP units attempting to pass through an open Draw Span.  I don't have any other details on this.  Assume it's in the Bay Area of California. Update-Gene Poon photo.

Gene Poon: This is my photo. It is the Brazos bridge over the Napa River. I was on the opposite shore waiting to get a photo of a train going across the bridge. Instead a maintainer drove up, shooed two kids off the bridge, and started it down from its raised position to get the concrete counterweight out of the way of the approaching runaway which had gotten out of Lombard yard. If the engines had hit the counterweight the bridge would probably have been seriously damaged.

Nobody was on the engines. The crew had gone to beans.

I got off a sequence of shots on my Pentax, so I did not see the splashdown directly, only through a viewfinder!

The photos were published in TRAINS, Feb.1984.

The bridge was sold to North Coast Railroad Authority and Golden Gate Bridge District in 1996 and conveyed to Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit... SMART. It is SMART's only link to the rest of the Anerican rail system.

Kendall Nichols: Gene Poon I remember your caption in Trains, "I haven't ever gotten a picture of a train crossing the Brazos Bridge. Still haven't."

Gene Poon: Kendall Nichols Still true....!!

Paul Jevert shared with the comment: "Espee's submarine Fleet ! DIVE-DIVE-DIVE!"