Thursday, February 24, 2011

Kennebec Bridges, Waterville, Maine

There are a couple of nice bridges in Waterville.  The Ticonic bridge is a pedestrian bridge about 200 yards above the Ticonic Falls:

Ticonic Bridge, Waterville, Maine.

At the falls themselves is a massive railroad bridge:

Railroad bridge, Kennebec River, Waterville, Maine.

Another view of the railroad bridge:

Barrel view of Ticonic Falls railroad bridge, Waterville, Maine.

Lap Order, August 1932

August 3, 1932, Rutland, Massachusetts.

(Click the picture to see the large version.)
This photograph, taken by Harold Judkins of Rutland, Massachusetts, shows the wreck of Boston & Maine locomotives 1435 and 1365. My grandfather was the fireman on engine 1435, and both he and the engineer died in the wreck. The engineer and fireman of locomotive 1365 apparently jumped and survived. The immediate cause of the wreck was a lap order issued by the dispatcher that allowed both trains access to the same stretch of track, but the exact circumstances remain a mystery.

The ICC accident report appears below:










Thursday, February 17, 2011

Jet Lowe in Cleveland


In the summer of 1979, Jet Lowe took a series of photographs of these huge machines used to unload ore from ships on Lake Erie. In this photograph, you can see a ship  (the George M. Carl) docked to the left of the massive Hulett ore unloaders.  Downtown Cleveland is in the distance.

Pennsylvania Railway Ore Dock, Lake Erie at
Whiskey Island,
approximately 1.5 miles west of
Public Square, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, OH
The unloader operator could drop the ore directly into waiting rail cars for immediate shipping, or deposit it in the storage yard to the left.