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Re: (erielack) Scranton "Bridge 60"

 
In a message dated 8/6/2007 11:05:16 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
MDelvec952_@_aol.com writes:

I  no  longer have any DL&W or EL employee's timetables. Can anyone tell  me 
if 
anywhere in DL&W or El official operating documents there is any  reference  
to "Bridge 60"?

Everyone (including Tabor refers to  it by that  nomenclature. Also says it 
was so called becaseu it was  60 miles from the  Delaware River (which isn't 
correct).

The  only engineering reference I  can find calls it "Bridge 133.82", which 
is  
the normal way of railroads  identifying bridges.

Any  comments?



Hi Chuck,

Having never heard a  real answer to that question,  I researched this 
years ago and found  that the Bridge 60 moniker dates  to DL&W's biblical 
times 
(1853)  when the mileposts started at  Great Bend. DL&W got to Binghamton  
over 
the Erie.  After Sam Sloan  joined the DL&W late in the  Civil War years and 
had 
risen to president late  in 1867, completing  his own line to Binghamton (ca. 
1869-1870), the  mileposts began at  the Susquehanna River which is almost 
exactly 60 miles  from the  Lackawanna River (before the Nicholson Cut-off 
was 
built). A year  or  two after the Civil War the Lackawanna River bridge in  
Scranton 
was  being upgraded from wooden trestle to stone arch; it is likely  during  
this project that it got the name Bridge 60.  

In Taber the 1857 timetable shows Scranton 48  miles from Great Bend, and  
the 1878 issue shows Scranton station to be 62 miles  from Binghamton  
station, confirming the mileage. In both timetables and the  others  of 
similar 
vintage at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania the   mileposts begin at the 
north end.

I've never seen Bridge  60 in a modern employee  timetable and don't 
recall seeing it in a  bulletin order.  So, Chuck, since  you grew up in 
Scranton, 
do  you remember calling it Bridge 60, or  hearing trainmen call it that, in  
the 
1940s and '50s?  If not, could  it be possible that  Taber-the-father had 
heard the term from the early  railroaders he  knew and TTTIII used it in his 
book 
enough to make it stick   today?

Mike Del Vecchio




Just a side note that may tie in to Mikes theory.  Under General  
Instructions 10 A in ETTs up to and including  # 58 dated Sept 28 1929  it refers to the 
old Lackawanna Susquehanna River Bridge at Binghamton as Bridge  Number 2.
 
Bob Bahrs



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