Pan Am Worcester Main Line

A quick photo from today. New steel beams added on top off additional concrete blocks on the pier and abutments. I don't think they were poured in place. Both sides of the bridge were done. Four smaller beams can be seen attached perpendicular to the new beams that hang below the existing bridge. On the right, a third row and cap has started to be added to the two existing rows of retaining wall blocks.

I'm guessing that the cross-pieces bolted onto the new girders will be used to gradually raise the original spans, once separated from the center pier, high enough to put support underneath by simply tightening the nuts on the bolts? But maybe not - can those bolts/crosspieces hold the weight of the old spans once they're lifted off the pier/abutments?

Here is what I see.--
Those concrete blocks that look about 3'-6" high are supporting those "new girders" which are in turn holding the cross beams under the original bridge. Once the original bridge girders are disconnected from their supports the bridge will be jacked up with additional support provided by those cross beams with the bolts being tightened up as they progress.

When the bridge reaches the proper height new supports will be installed on the pier and abutments under the original bridge.

Then the "new girders" , the cross beams and concrete blocks will be removed since they are there only for the jacking.

BTW, I received a report last night that a 30+ car freight was seen running eastbound through the crossing at Randall St in Berlin. I thought that the Ag Branch was closed but that doesn’t seem to be true.

The Ag Branch bridge at Clinton has been raised, at least partially if not the full 33”. And as workers putter around on the pier and abutments a Harsco tamper works out of sight to the right on new stone on the west approach to the span.

Very cool to see this. Thanks for documenting this.

You're welcome but It's a team effort!

Excellent photos

The fill material stuffed between the cut on center pier metal and the bottom of the bridge deck looks to be less than 33 inches. More like 1/2 of that.

From Mr. Barlow's generous reporting I take it that with slower "jacking" and not a quick lift or full replacement of the bridge, the newly installed Fitchburg sub welded rails are going along for the upward ride without being cut.

I'm pretty sure raising the track 33" over that distance will require a pieces to be cut in somewhere. You would induce a lot of stress that would have to be accounted for.

Perhaps that underlies their wisdom of ending the welded rail installation just to the west (north) even if it was installed across the bridge and where, within re-anchoring to relieve stress, they could then add sections of new rail at the transition to existing stick?

neman2 wrote: ↑Sun Dec 15, 2024 11:40 am I'm pretty sure raising the track 33" over that distance will require a pieces to be cut in somewhere. You would induce a lot of stress that would have to be accounted for.

I don’t know how far back they’re going with the added ballast, but let’s say it’s 200 feet. Using the Pythagorean theorem the length of the track would be the square root of the 200 ft squared plus the height squared. Ballparking the raised distance as 3’ (close enough for this guesstimate), that means the track would need to get about 1/4” longer over the 200 ft rise.

I don’t think they’re going to need to cut in extra length.

Correct, but I'm thinking about disturbing CWR outside of it's rail neutral temperature.

johnhenry wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2024 8:50 am Thanks for the old and new photos and descriptions. Too bad I didn't have railroad awareness to see these scenes when I moved to Worcester in 1973. And I didn't know about the pig ramp on the other side of I290, I always assumed that spur was mostly to serve Morgan Construction.

There was a July 12, 2024 post and a track map uploaded to this topic that showed the ramp track immediately adjacent and parallel to I-290.

From my memory of the 70's and 80's, I do not recall that Morgan Construction was an active customer, although one would think that large rolling mills for steel plants would be a candidate for rail shipment.

The busiest customer on that side of I-290 was the Telegram & Gazette newsprint warehouse (their printing plant at the time was located in downtown Worcester, along with their offices). There was always a boxcar or two on the siding, usually of Canadian origin.

There was also a coal yard (Peterson?) at the southern part of that space, next to I-290. With the oil embargos of the 70's, coal became a popular alternative for heating (again) and I do recall the occasional hopper being spotted there. The hoppers would be unloaded on the ground and piled with the help of portable belt conveyors. I seem to remember a few of the classic high lift delivery trucks as well. I wish I had taken a few pictures, it would be a nice modeling subject.

Morgan was an active rail customer but to the tune of very rarely through the '70's and by the end of the 80's their large pieces of machinery including delicate process controls often moving to West Coast ports for export to Asia, even if oversized travelling all the way across the country, went via specialized flatbed highway carriers to protect against damage and where rail's ride quality was deemed inadequate.

Also in the customer category for rare use of rail was the produce packing house on the west side of the yard area receiving mechanical refrigerated cars from the West.

In the yard's transitional role, late '70's the south end was converted to transloading bulk plastic pellets with tracks removed for truck access to the covered hoppers.