Showing posts with label rrPenn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rrPenn. Show all posts

Sunday, August 9, 2026

Aban/Penn/GR&I and Marantette (Railroad St.) Bridges over St. Joseph River at Mendon, MI

GR&I: (no Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite)


Marantette Road Bridge


2020 photo by Rick McOmber via BridgeHunter
139' (42m)

HistoricBridges_road
"This bridge is an excellent and beautiful example of a pin-connected truss bridge in Michigan. It is noted for its fairly long span length of 139 feet. It also is largely unaltered from its original design and materials. The only thing missing is the builder plaques. The bridge retains a traditional design wooden deck and rests on random rubble type stone abutments. It has been closed to traffic for many years."

After reading about the "random rubble type stone abutments," I better understood why Rick took this photo.
2020 photo by Rick McOmber via BridgeHunter

Aban/Penn/GR&I Railroad Bridge


I can't remember another time when Historic Bridges documented a bridge that Bridge Hunter did not document.
HistoricBridges_GR&I

Both Bridges


Jennifer Woodman posted 15 photos with the comment:
Mendon, MI: The Marantette Bridge and Mendon Railroad Bridge
Two abandoned spans sit side by side on the St. Joseph River here. The Marantette Bridge is a 139-foot steel Pratt through-truss built around 1900 by Ohio's Massillon Bridge Company. It's been closed since 1984 and earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.
Just west, an abandoned steel deck plate girder bridge carries the ghost of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad over the river. The GR&I was absorbed by the Pennsylvania Railroad, then Penn Central, then Conrail before the branch was abandoned. No National Register of Historic Places honor for this beauty though.
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Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Saturday, August 1, 2026

1897+2005 NS/Pennsy Bridges over Beaver River at Wampum, PA

1897: (Archived Bridge Hunter is broke; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges)
2005: (Satellite)

It was owned by a Pennsy subsidiary: Pittsburgh, Youngstown & Ashtabula Railroad, Bridge #13

1897 Bridge


The trusses were made with wrought iron. [HAER_data]

HAER PA,37-WAMP,1--2
2. Oblique view of south elevation, looking east from western abutment. - Pittsburgh, Youngstown & Ashtabula Railroad, Bridge No. 13, Spanning Beaver River, South of State Route 288 Bridge, Wampum, Lawrence County, PA

HAER PA,37-WAMP,1--6 (CT)
6. Overview of north elevation, looking SE from west bank of Beaver River, with train on bridge. - Pittsburgh, Youngstown & Ashtabula Railroad, Bridge No. 13, Spanning Beaver River, South of State Route 288 Bridge, Wampum, Lawrence County, PA

HAER PA,37-WAMP,1--4
4. Oblique view of easternmost truss span, looking west from eastern abutment, with train on bridge. Note that next spans is occluded by sharp curvature of bridge. - Pittsburgh, Youngstown & Ashtabula Railroad, Bridge No. 13, Spanning Beaver River, South of State Route 288 Bridge, Wampum, Lawrence County, PA

2005 Bridge


Street View, Oct 2013

Big Boy 2026:
MP Rail Photography posted
Having just left Conway, NS 061, with the Big Boy leading, crosses over the Beaver River at Wampum.
July 12, 2026
Wampum, PA
Power:
UP 4014 - 4-8-8-4 Steam Locomotive (Big Boy)
UP 1616 - SD70M (Abraham Lincoln Unit)
NS 2026 - SD70ACe
NS 250 - SD70ACe
NS 1776 - SD70ACe
UP 1776 - SD70M

Saturday, May 16, 2026

1930,1990 Guilford Avenue Bridge over I-83 & Northeast Corridor and 1873+1934 Union Tunnel

Bridge: (Archived Bridge Hunter; no Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)
Tunnel West Portal: (Satellite)
Tunnel East Portal: (Satellite)

Union Tunnel is a little east of Guilford Ave. Bridge.

The main span is over Pennsy's Northeast Corridor. It is 174' (41m) long, and the bridge is 321' (98m) long. [ArchivedBridgeHunter]

I learned of this bridge while researching Pennsy's B&P Junction Tower that is a little west of this bridge. I was going to skip another steel arch bridge until I noticed the 1930 date. It looks like a tied-arch bridge, but I have not been able to confirm that. I thought tied-arch bridges were a post WWII development. But this bridge indicates that they were used a few decades earlier.

Guilford Avenue Bridge


Street View, Oct 2023

Street View, Sep 2015

Street View, Nov 2020

Amtrak/Pennsy Union Tunnel


I Googled "Hoffman Tunnel" because it runs under Hoffman Street. The results indicated  thatthe correct name is Union Tunnel. I presume that is because the Penn Station was sometimes called Union Station.

I could not get a street view of the tunnel from the bridge because there is a solid wall on the outside of the bridge blocking the view. This view is from I-83.
Street View, Oct 2023

"The Union Tunnel is about 0.6 miles [1 km] long." [maryland]

"The tunnel consists of two parallel bores: the original bore from 1873 has a single track, while a newer bore from 1934 has two tracks." [wikipedia]

By Unknown engraver - Richardson, James. "Traveling by Telegraph, Northward to Niagara." Scribner’s Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 1, p. 4. (https://archive.org/stream/scribnersmonthly04newy#page/n10/mode/1up), Public Domain, Link

This is a 11:02 railfan video of trains going in and out of the west portal.

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

1910-82+2019 Trail/Pennsy Bridge over Big Walnut Creek at Sunbury, OH

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Brian Jules posted seven photos with the comment: "Sunbury, Ohio with the repurposed railroad trestle of the Ohio and Erie trail. This railroad  trestle collapsed in 1886 and again in 1910! Finally made right with an iron span in 1910. Trestle spans Big Walnut Creek, location of a Berea sandstone quarry just to the north. Info referenced from The Berea Sandstone Quarries of Ohio, Ralph Pfingsten. Historical photos Big Walnut Creek Historical Society."
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BridgeHunter

David Case, Nov 2023

Pennsy built the bridge.
1955/56 Sunbury Quad @ 24,000

"The Ohio to Erie Trail is a dedicated multi-use trail crossing Ohio from southwest to northeast, stretching over 326 miles of regional parks, nature preserves, and rural woodland. With the completion of this new Sunbury Trail section, the trail is roughly 85% complete. The trail, named after its endpoints, extends from the Ohio River at Cincinnati to Lake Erie at Cleveland, integrating former rail trails and multi-use trails into a dedicated route​​." [1808delaware]


Tuesday, April 14, 2026

1893 Aban/Pennsy Duck Creek Bridge

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Mike Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND)
Revenue abandonment
The railroad bridge at Caywood Road, Washington County, Ohio. In 1968 the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with long time rival New York Central forming the Penn Central Railroad Company. The merger went bankrupt and in 1976 Penn Central, along with several other struggling railroads, was purchased by the Consolidated Rail Corporation, in hopes to transform the troubled railroad system into a profitable business. The merger created an ever lasting impact to our area when thousands of miles of track was abandoned, including the Marietta Branch, due to what was considered low revenue. After the last train crossed this bridge on its way to Dover Ohio, in May 1976, just about every mile of the entire line was abandoned.

2021 Photo by Mike Tewkesbury via BridgeHunter

Facebook Reel

Sunday, April 5, 2026

1872 Aban/(Pennsy+P&S) 754' (230m) Tunnel and Bridges at Brookville, PA

West Portal: (Satellite)
East Portal: (Satellite)

P&S = Pittsburgh & Shawmut

Facebook Reel

In the above video, Linda says that this bridge is over the Redbank Creek. But since the bridge is straight, I think she is headed to the eastern portal and the bridge is over Sandy Lick Creek. The bridge on the west side is curved and is over Redbank Creek.
Satellite

The Pennsy route east of town is now operated by the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad. And the Pittsburg & Shawmut roundhouse is now used by Brookville Equipment Corp. The abandoned railroad west of the tunnel is now the Redbank Valley Trail.
1924/1957 Brookville Quad @ 62,500

Robert Hartloff posted five images with the comment: "I see a lot of pictures of the famous bridge in Brookville, Pa but never of the Pennsylvania RR tunnel. It appears it was built for 2 tracks. May have been originally Lake Shore and Michigan Southern? My pictures. 10-20-22"
Shane Rosencrance: That's the PRR low grade, nee Allegheny Valley Railroad, the NYC swung across the Coder Viaduct and met the Low Grade at Rose just outside of Brookville. Trackage rights were then shared until reaching the central PA coal fields.
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It is closed because of "structural issues."
BridgesOfTheUSA, this webpage has many photos of the tunnel.