(erielack) Float Bridges

[Gordon Davids <g.davids_@_verizon.net>]

Bob Bahrs just now sent me a copy of his message to the group, so I can 
answer it in the same cycle.  Good idea, Bob, before my short-term 
memory goes away. :-)

The New York car float business was heading down the tubes by 1968.  I 
don't know what prompted the CNJ to sell two of their pontoon bridges to 
the EL, but I can imagine that they were much more desperate for cash 
than for the two bridges, seeing that CNJ still had two left and they 
were bankrupt.

The EL Dockbuilders Gang had already moved the bridges when I arrived in 
Hoboken in November 1968, so I didn't see the move.  They had several 
floating cranes that could easily lift one of the bridges, pontoon and 
all, onto a barge or float and then set it into place in its new slip.  
The land-side hinges and other apparatus would also have to be moved and 
re-assembled, but that should not have been a major problem.  Of course, 
the slip had to be built to accommodate the new bridges, with piles and 
dolphins and all that, but EL had a couple of good marine pile drivers 
that took care of that.

The electric bridges were more efficient, in that you could pin floats 
more quickly and without a yard engine to assist, but it would have been 
much more expensive to move all the framework and overhead equipment for 
the Erie electric bridges than it was to buy and reset the pontoon 
bridges.  Also, the pontoon bridges took less space on the waterfront.  
As on the CNJ, by that time the EL car float operation was operating at 
a much lower level than it had been in past decades, so the two pontoon 
bridges were adequate - except once . . . .

The two CNJ bridges were not the same.  One had about a 50 percent 
higher weight limit than the other.  I don't really remember the actual 
numbers, but I remember the result.

I had gone back to my old railroad, the D&H, in 1970, and one of my jobs 
as the Bridge Engineer was clearing exceptional loads (high, wide or 
heavy).  We had a turbine come out of GE Schenectady to move Jefferson 
Jct - EL to be loaded on a ship out in New York Harbor.  I checked with 
my counterpart on EL and we discussed the need to use the correct float 
bridge at Jersey City.  The EL movement clearance was made out properly, 
but the Yardmaster at JC didn't read it right.  So . . .

One turbine went to the bottom, car, float bridge and all.  EL had to 
pay some big bucks to Merritt, Chapman and Scott to bring a crane from 
Baltimore and fish out the turbine, then the freight claims to GE and 
the consignee for repairs to the turbine at Schenectady (almost six 
months worth) and delay to the construction of the power plant.

Then, to add insult to injury, a few weeks later we gave the EL at 
Jefferson Jct. a GE transformer out of Pittsfield, Mass. on the D&H's 
"Queen Mary," DH 16157, a 12-axle flat car.  EL took it up the 
connection to Lanesboro and through the crossover just a little too 
fast.  The transformer laid over on its side, and it took all the King's 
Horses and all the King's Men to set the transformer (and GE's 
confidence in EL) back upright again.  GE really needed the EL, though, 
because it was the only route to either New York or the mid-west with 
the clearances to handle most of those big loads.

Gordon Davids

Gordon:

Thanks for the interesting side note!   Were they excess in that the CNJ 
still had two others?  I assume they were dismantled and floated up to 
the Lackawanna yard?
Was moving these from the CNJ was easier ( certainly not cheaper ) than 
moving the ex Erie bridges? I would think that an electric bridge would 
be an improvement over a pontoon bridge, but I guess there are a lot of 
other things that come into play there.   Don't hesitate to share your 
knowledge with us.   Thanks in advance.  :)
 
Bob Bahrs


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