RR bridge closed near Simmesport LA

[Pat Harper]

Just heard on the news...a railroad bridge near Simmesport LA was hit by a loose barge. Authorities have closed the bridge until damages can be assessed.

From what I can determine, this is NOT a bridge that Amtrak uses. It is located a bit north of Baton Rouge.

 

[George Harris]

This bridge is located on the KCS main (Louisiana and Arkansas) line between Baton Rouge and Alexandria LA. It is several miles upstream of the point where the Morganza Floodway dumps water into the Atchafalaya basis, so that would not be a factor in this situation. So, no Amtrak, and no passenger trains at all since the demise of the Southern Belle.

By the way, there no possibility of water from the Morganza floodway putting this line under water. Where it crosses the floodway it is on top of the control structure alongside Louisiana highway 1.

A little more looking: in avoyellestoday.com

Four empty barges, now pulled clear of the bridge. Time of strike not given but is stated that the parallel Hwy 1 bridge reopened at 9:09 am. "did not seem to be any damage" to the railroad bridge.

 

[had8ley]

This bridge is located on the KCS main (Louisiana and Arkansas) line between Baton Rouge and Alexandria LA. It is several miles upstream of the point where the Morganza Floodway dumps water into the Atchafalaya basis, so that would not be a factor in this situation. So, no Amtrak, and no passenger trains at all since the demise of the Southern Belle.

By the way, there no possibility of water from the Morganza floodway putting this line under water. Where it crosses the floodway it is on top of the control structure alongside Louisiana highway 1.

A little more looking: in avoyellestoday.com

Four empty barges, now pulled clear of the bridge. Time of strike not given but is stated that the parallel Hwy 1 bridge reopened at 9:09 am. "did not seem to be any damage" to the railroad bridge.

Up until the late '70's this was a train and car bridge. I can remember meeting cars half way across even when the bridge tender had the vehicular gates down. And no, quad gates weren't even a pipe dream in those days. I believe an 18 wheeler could have run around what the L&A called gates.One other interesting tidbit~ this was in totally dark territory; the only way you knew if the brisdge was closed for rail traffic was if a 100 watt light bulb was illuminated. When the light burned out you had to stop and walk to the bridge tender's shack in the middle of the bridge and get authority to pass over the bridge. The L&A never would put a radio on that bridge and the signal maintainer took his time in replacing the lone light bulb.Cave day RR'ing to say the least...

 

[George Harris]

This bridge is located on the KCS main (Louisiana and Arkansas) line between Baton Rouge and Alexandria LA. It is several miles upstream of the point where the Morganza Floodway dumps water into the Atchafalaya basis, so that would not be a factor in this situation.

Up until the late '70's this was a train and car bridge. I can remember meeting cars half way across even when the bridge tender had the vehicular gates down. And no, quad gates weren't even a pipe dream in those days. I believe an 18 wheeler could have run around what the L&A called gates.One other interesting tidbit~ this was in totally dark territory; the only way you knew if the brisdge was closed for rail traffic was if a 100 watt light bulb was illuminated. When the light burned out you had to stop and walk to the bridge tender's shack in the middle of the bridge and get authority to pass over the bridge. The L&A never would put a radio on that bridge and the signal maintainer took his time in replacing the lone light bulb.Cave day RR'ing to say the least...

Had forgotten about that. If I remember right, there were a couple more combined use bridges in Louisiana, but I can't remember where. The M&B bridge of the Tombigbee River in Alabama was also one of these into the early 1990's or thereabouts. I drove that one a couple times. There is now a parallel road bridge for this one as well.

The L&A: All dark territory except Baton Rouge to New Orleans, wasn't it?

Seemed like there was a fairly long period of time that KCS treated track maintenance as an option. Everything seemed to be getting ragged. For a while it looked like the whole system was circling the drain. I think they finally woke up and started putting some real money into track. Whether they still are, I don't know.