Moveable Bridges on New Haven Line

Interesting article. It is going to be interesting to see how well these restrictions work out.

The Coast Guard requires Metro-North to open the bridge "immediately" for commercial vessels and to not exceed a delay of more than 20 minutes to do so for all other waterborne traffic.

I was curious is a bridge operator stationed there all the time or if the bridge needs to be opened they just have someone come from Stamford or Bridgeport MOW to open it and hope they can be there within 20 minutes? Not sure if this was answered somewhere else.

I could be wrong but I think most of the bridges are operated by the RTC.

your wrong, they have bridge tenders, the RTC turns over control to them once they put signals to stop.
the RTC's do not control the bridges, Cioscob has a bridgetender and so does Walk, the other bridges I believe share a traveling bridgetender.

The boating folks quoted in the article make me sick to my stomach. Heaven forbid a bridge is not opened for their high masted boat within 20 minutes on the nose, they'll start crowing about it to their local official and just maybe gain enough headway to really put the railroad in a bad position and inconvenience hundreds of commuters for the sake of their joyride. What should be done, in my opinion, is that the railroad should publish the range of times where there is enough of a gap in scheduled train traffic to lower and raise the bridge on demand and pitch it to boaters as "ideal" times meaning they don't have to wait as long. Then that way more boaters can try and schedule their trips through the bridge areas during those times, thereby reducing the number of chances for a boat to pull up at a very inopportune time for the railroad. Perhaps this system would allow both boaters and MNRR to be able to plan more and reduce delays for both parties.

DutchRailnut wrote:your wrong, they have bridge tenders, the RTC turns over control to them once they put signals to stop.
the RTC's do not control the bridges, Cioscob has a bridgetender and so does Walk, the other bridges I believe share a traveling bridgetender.

Cob, Walk, and Peck are staffed from 5am untill 9pm year round. Saga is staffed from 5am till 9pm from Memorial Day to Labor day and from 5am till 1pm the rest of the year. Devon is staffed 24-7, but not with a Bridge tender. It is manned by a track dept employee, the RTC gives control to the Signal Dept.

Railroader wrote:

DutchRailnut wrote:your wrong, they have bridge tenders, the RTC turns over control to them once they put signals to stop.
the RTC's do not control the bridges, Cioscob has a bridgetender and so does Walk, the other bridges I believe share a traveling bridgetender.

Cob, Walk, and Peck are staffed from 5am untill 9pm year round. Saga is staffed from 5am till 9pm from Memorial Day to Labor day and from 5am till 1pm the rest of the year. Devon is staffed 24-7, but not with a Bridge tender. It is manned by a track dept employee, the RTC gives control to the Signal Dept.

Thanks for the info. Are the bridgetenders employed directly by Metro-North? I was doing a little bit of research about the bridges at Cob, Walk, Saga and found out that these bridges are listed on the Register of Historical Places. Since these bridges are listed on the registry I imagine that when MNRR and the DOT decide to replace them there will be a lot of red tape they may to get around to make sure they stick with the original design. Looking at some of the pictures I noticed that the houses containing the controls on the Cos, Walk and Saga bridges look fairly new when were these built?

Picture of the Norwalk River Bridge
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e ... 122007.JPG

I think maybe the "bridgetenders" were a separate group under the track department, this was the case on the New Haven, Penn Central and Conrail and it may well still be the case with Metro-North. Devon was the only bridge with a bridgetender rather than an operator. That was the case because the bridge was within Devon Interlocking and all of the signals were controlled by the operator at Devon and later the train dispatcher. In addition to Devon Shaws Cove and the Groton Bridges were also operated by bridgetenders because these bridges were also within an interlocking controlled by Groton Tower and later by the train dispatcher.
Walk Bridge came close to bridgetender status but there was an operator there in the past because of two westbound dwarf signals east of the bridge were controlled by the bridge while all of the other interlocking an bridge signals were controlled from SS-44/Berk/the new Walk. While on the subject of drawbridges the bridge at Saga during the New Haven days right up until and after Penn Central was opened and closed by a diesel engine, there were and maybe still are two of them in the bridge shanty, anybody on here know whether Saga is still opened and closed by diesel power?
Noel Weaver

Patrick A. wrote:The boating folks quoted in the article make me sick to my stomach. Heaven forbid a bridge is not opened for their high masted boat within 20 minutes on the nose, they'll start crowing about it to their local official and just maybe gain enough headway to really put the railroad in a bad position and inconvenience hundreds of commuters for the sake of their joyride. What should be done, in my opinion, is that the railroad should publish the range of times where there is enough of a gap in scheduled train traffic to lower and raise the bridge on demand and pitch it to boaters as "ideal" times meaning they don't have to wait as long. Then that way more boaters can try and schedule their trips through the bridge areas during those times, thereby reducing the number of chances for a boat to pull up at a very inopportune time for the railroad. Perhaps this system would allow both boaters and MNRR to be able to plan more and reduce delays for both parties.

I have no sympathy for the recreational boaters at COB and SAGA-- so far as I can see there is no industrial or commercial user of the waterfront upstream of either of those bridges (although if I recall correctly oyster boats would dock behind the Bridge Market in Saugatuck up into the 1980's). WALK is a different story, though. DeVine Brothers in Norwalk takes barge delivery of cement and aggregates at their facility up at the head of Norwalk Harbor-- may get fuel oil by barge, too, but I'm not sure. What I do know for sure is that when you're talking about bringing something that heavy and unwieldy up into the Norwalk River you're highly dependant on the tide: which unfortunately doesn't run on a 24hr schedule...

Does the UI plant at Devon take delivery of fuel by barge? And what exactly is upstream of PECK, anyway? It always seemed to me like that bridge is just about at the head of the harbor.

Peck takes fuel deliveries and maybe aggregate for DiAdario ?
and Cos Cob has a commercial party boat leaving in middle of rushhour in summer months.

A little work on track 1, Saugatuck bridge.

I understand the frustration with the bridges and the boating community. It's clear that the situation presents a serious impediment to the transport of 112,000 people per day (figure from wikipedia).

That said, this isn't as one-sided of an argument as it seems. A harbor with a couple hundred boats supports an entire town. A typical harbor town has 5-10 restaurants and bars, a grocery, a few gas stations, a hardware, a few mechanics, a train station, a few lawyers and doctors, a pharmacy, a bunch of caretakers and handymen, and a few general contractors that put up condos. Think about that. You've probably got a few million dollars worth of payroll and a significant tax base there, as well as a draw for train ridership. Amtrak's Holland, MI (pop 33k), station has as many riders as Indianapolis (pop 827k) every year.

Food for thought. I'm not arguing against or for either side, just suggesting that it's not as one-sided as we might believe, with respect to railroads or the economy in general.

Just for perspective, the US 1 drawbridge across the Merrimack River between Newburyport and Salisbury, MA is only opened on the hour and half-hour during the boating season. It clears around 35' closed, but there are at least 50 sailboats based upstream of it. I don't know of any commercial traffic that needs the draw opened.