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RE: (erielack) Train and Crane



Lynne, that's a pile driver, not a crane.  You can see the pile, the 'telephone pole' looking thing
in the vertical part of the driver.  The top of it is a little bit above the coach.  The weight, or
hammer,  which has been pulled up close to the top of the pile driver's vertical legs, is about 3/4
of the way up to the top.  In action, the hammer is pulled all the way up (usually) and then allowed
to free-fall so it hits the top of the pile.  Over and over and over and over and over again.  Yep,
noisy!  The hammer then drives the pile down into the ground.  Eventually, it hits either rock, or
refusal based on the friction generated between the sides of the pile and the dirt it's driven in.
Technically, the engineers would look for a "blow count" of so many blows per foot, or inch, to
establish the bearing capacity of the individual pile.  In those days, as far as I know, all piles
were wood trees, like you see in this picture.  Today, there are many different kinds of piles,
concrete, steel, tapered of both varieties, stepped, and more.  Piles driven in groups form the
basis for foundations of many very large structures, which sit on (generally) concrete bearing caps
atop the piles.  Sometimes in the old days, the bearing caps were built of stone.

It's not perfectly clear to me, anyway, why they are driving piles right THERE.  Fellow Jerseyites
may know the location well enough to say that there is, as it sort of looks like, a bridge there or
something.  Given that the structure is being placed in a fill, the embankment the tracks are on,
they must be planning something fairly heavy.  Fills are not generally as strong as natural "dirt"
to build something on.

SGL

> -----Original Message-----
> From: erielack-owner_@_lists.elhts.org 
> [mailto:erielack-owner_@_lists.elhts.org] On Behalf Of Lynne
> Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 8:58 PM
> To: Erie Lackawanna List
> Subject: (erielack) Train and Crane
> 
> NOTE: This message had contained at least one image attachment.
> To view or download the image(s), click on or cut and paste 
> the following URL into your web browser:
> 
> 
> http://lists.railfan.net/listthumb.cgi?erielack-02-15-06
> 
> TrainAndCrane.jpg (image/jpeg, 4000x2460 877662 bytes, BF: 11.21 ppb)
> 
> I found this photo in our archives today, but I need to ask 
> for help deciphering it, please. The photo was extremely 
> faded, so I scanned it at a high resolution and manipulated 
> it in the photo editor, to try to get as much detail as 
> possible. I apologize if the file is too big, but I wanted 
> everyone to be able to see as much of the mid- and background 
> as possible. I am happy to resize it if necessary.
> 
> The back of the photo has only "Crane" written in it and a 
> faded ink stamp that says "The First National Bank of Millburn, N.J."
> 
> Any ideas about what is happening in this photo? Can you tell 
> what the approximate date is from the train? I would also 
> like to submit it to the local paper for our weekly historic 
> photo, but I don't know what to say about it. Can you help?
> 
> Thank you again.
> Lynne
> 
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