Filling in a trestle

[Chris333]

Almost an hour worth of footage from 1926 showing how a 100' tall trestle was filled in using narrow gauge dinkys.

[Chris333]

Think this is it today:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Avola,+BC+V0E+1C0,+Canada/@51.8800805,-119.3200287,673m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x5382002eea2aff2d:0x3008f19539fffb3d!8m2!3d51.785209!4d-119.3231009!5m1!1e4

[wazzou]

More common than one might think that railroads did this.

[Chris333]

I know it was common. Railroads were built fast with trestle and later got filled in. Heck one 5 mile long narrow gauge line got over half of it's trestle filled in. Usually they just pulled trains onto the trestle and dumped. These people built a whole narrow gauge network around and thru the trestle. Also later on in the video it looks like the steam shovel got washed away and need to be dug out.

What is un-common is having an hour long video from 1926 showing the whole thing   

[davefoxx]

I always wondered how they didn’t have settlement problems once that trestle started to rot and the earth that was dumped wasn’t packed.

DFF

[dem34]

I always wondered how they didn’t have settlement problems once that trestle started to rot and the earth that was dumped wasn’t packed.

DFF

I imagine vibrations from the trains transferring through the bents into the surrounding sediment kept it in check in the long term.

[wazzou]

I always wondered how they didn’t have settlement problems once that trestle started to rot and the earth that was dumped wasn’t packed.

DFF

Oxygen is generally what promotes decay.  Remove the exposure to air and it’s likely you can still find the trestle intact.

[Missaberoad]

Also railroads are constantly adding new ballast and fill, the battle against erosion and settling is never ending.

Nice video! Something to keep in mind when people bring up the adage that fills and cuts should equal out. While a good and efficient practice, eventually fills can far exceed cuts due to filled in trestles...

[nkalanaga]

Bryan:  You're right.  In later years it wasn't uncommon for railroads to dig into a fill, for whatever reason, and find the old trestle still there.  In some cases, it was people removing a fill after the railroad was abandoned that found the remains.

[trainforfun]

An hour long movie of the time is quite something , watching it and thinking that these people died a long time ago , but we still appreciate what they did .
They worked hard at the time , but they keep smiling on break time .
Thanks for the video !!

[Sokramiketes]

Amazing find.  Look at all the work that went into the trestle for the narrow gauge, just to fill the trestle for the standard gauge!

[timwatson]

This is amazing footage (I even dig the music) thanks for sharing it Chris. Really hard to believe it was documented so throughly.

[cv_acr]

Wow all that narrow gauge construction track is wild.

There are old photos published in a book on the Algoma Central that shows an old trestle being filled, and the fill material is just dumped from the top of the trestle in standard gauge side-discharge gondolas similar in concept to this car, but in wood:

http://canadianfreightcargallery.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=tem140019&o=tem

[wazzou]

I finally took the time to watch this in it's entirety today.  It is pretty amazing the hardships that they endured, with floods, landslides and the like.
I hope they were fully bonded and insured.   
It looked like they must have required a full time track gang to make all of the changes over the two years.
I would bet they had some good Deer hunting nearby the site.

[ncbqguy]

The traffic on the railroad probably dictated the use of contractors narrow gauge for the fill operation.   That, and the source of fill being lower and at right angles to the standard gauge.  At the end they did lay narrow gauge straddling both rails to top off the fill from the trestle.
Contractors railroads were used until the widespread use of tracked and tired equipment after WWII.  Even highways and large buildings were constructed using the same kind of equipment as in this great film.
Later Fills were still balanced when possible with material from related grade reduction projects.   
Track elevation in Chicago used dredged sand from Lake Michigan and the Indiana Dunes, and gravel beds as far as 45 miles from Chicago. All mains and entire yards like Western Avenue on the CB&Q and Robey Street on the B&O were raised using the same techniques in the film....but under traffic with the standard gauge tracks were pulled up in increments or built on trestles.  U
Also standard gauge equipment was used such as flats with sides that swung open for unloading using a plow dragged by a steam powered cable winch called a Lidgerwood.
That huge project to eliminate grade crossings was completed in stages in less than 15 years with private capital.  Today the funding for impact studies and preliminary engineering would take longer without a shovel of dirt being disturbed in spite of massive taxpayer “investment”....
Charlie Vlk