This blog helps me write http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/. For example, it contains photo dumps of field trips with some text so that I can search the photos later. It is not intended to be read by others. But if you find photos organized by geography interesting, then enjoy.
I discovered that the US Army Core of Engineers has a web site that displays their lock activity. So purpose of this posting is to record interesting links as well as try to track were Marge goes during her stay in the Chicago area.
I can select which range of locks I on the Illinois Waterway for which I want data. I narrowed it down to Dresden Isand and Brandon Road. Most of the vessels were running light or with a small tow. (Although, the Lemont Trader went downbound through Brandon with 8 barges.) However, Marge Mcfarlin went upbound with 15 barges through Dresden between 03:59 and 06:43 on 2018/11/08. I recognized the name as one of Ingram's pushboats. Like Sam Fleming, it is a line-haul pushboat that has a retractable pilot house.
So I started tracking its location in the Chicago area. Around 2pm, it was downstream of Mugz's Hideout. Theoretically, if I headed there, I might be able to get photos of it. But my main movtivation for getting a photo of a tow is to determine its size. But the USACE report includes the number of barges that locked through. It will be interesting if it goes through Brandon or if it stays in the Ingram's Channahon fleeting area. Since the weather has turned cold, I'll spend my time getting location updates rather than grinding out miles on the interstates to Mugz's Hideout. Some of the locks on the Illinois River were closed this summer for repairs. I checked the lock status page to confirm that the closures are done. The other tow through Dresden larger than 8 barges was the upbound Killian L. Huger with 13 barges.
Looking a Starved Rock and Marseilles, I was surprised to see that only two of the tows were larger than 8 --- 13 and 15. And our friend Sam M Fleming had the 15-barge tow. There were two light tows and tows as small as 2 and 3 barges. I expected the tows to be larger as we got into the mainstream of the river. For the two wicker dam locks (Lagrange and Peoria), of the 10 tows listed, only 8, 13, and 15 was larger than 3.
I did a query for all of the locks on the river. It appears to be sorted by vessel number. More accurately, the output is not sorted; it is displayed as it is stored in the database. Of the 35 entries, one was a pleasure craft (#9999999) through the O'Brien lock.
\
The large delays for Brandon in this output caught my eye.
Looking at the arrival times vs. the Start of Lock, it appears they made Derek, Aggie and Lemont wait until after Lousiana and Cody locked through together. And Aggie locked through before Derek because they had to lower the water anyhow before Derek could enter. Even Lousiana and Cody had to wait until 1am even though Capt cleared the lock at midnight.
1410: 273.2
1426: 271.2 It went backwards! It must be in some sort of holding pattern waiting for a (big) spot in the fleeting area. Now I'm glad I didn't take off to try to see it. The holding area is around a bend and not visible from Mugz's Hideout.
1445: 271.2 In fact, its 0500 location was 271.2. So it has been waiting a rather long time.
1512: 271.2
1612: 271.6
1715: 271.4
1816: 270.5 Ingram still shows upbound.
USACE shows downbound with arrival at 1415 and departure at 1745. So it is a good thing I never went to Mugz's Hideout because it was downstream of the bend all afternoon.
Query of Dresden Lock delays at 6:26
2019: 262,8 Ingram is still showing upbound. But, obviously, we can wave goodbye to Marge.
I was going through the photos posted for Mugz's Hideout and noticed this one. Unfortunately, I can't find the name on it. You can tell this is around a fleeting area because it is a line-haul pushboat that is running light. The photo also has a nice view of the I-55 bridges.
I'm not optimistic about chasing this one in the Chicagoland area because the last time I tracked her, it appeared that she turned and burned at the Channahon terminal.
Today's Google satellite image of the Channahon fleeting area is different. The barges in the upper-right corner look like the pile that was there in the previous image.
20180922
1301: 276.3
1638: 278.2
1842: 285, so it is doing some local fleeting operations.
Rats, I got caught up in writing about Calaveras Dam and forgot to check more frequently this evening to see how far upstream she went.
2104: 291, Lockport Lock
20180923
0007: 291.1 Still in the lock
0125: 294.3 I had to first click that I was not a robot
0154: 295.5
0404: 298.8 Lemont Terminal
1035: 283 Would I have time to beat it to Mugz's Hideout?
1207: 278.8 In hindsight, I did have time to see what I could see from Mugz's Hideout.
1354: 278.4
2301: 255.3 There are now nine tows on the Illinois River. The furthest upbound is Dale A Haller at 244.4 (I forgot to get a fresh link for 244.4)
Dale A Haller
20180924
0343: 250.6 It has moved only 6 miles in almost four hours? Did it serve a dock in the Seneca area?
20180925
Noonish 277.3 Erna is back in town
1549: 273.5 But it left after a few hours?
During September 7-15, 2018, BNSF replaced the Main Street crossing in Downers Grove, IL. I spent quite a bit of time trackside taking photos of the construction. While I was there, I took videos of all of the trains that came through. Generally, I did just the locomotives, but if it was a mixed freight, I probably did the whole train.
Downers Grove is a quite zone, so I normally don't hear any horns. But since they were doing construction on the tracks, the trains use a series of two short beeps until they pass the zone. The trains are coming through at a restricted speed because of the construction. Although I have noticed that the rear of some of them seem to be doing at track speed for freights --- 45 mph.
The bad news is that most of these videos were taken from the north platform because that is where I could get the best view of the construction activity. That means I'm on the dark side of the trains. I know enough about railfanning to know that is a big no-no. But the silver lining is that I get the depot in the background of many of the views.
This is currently a work in progress and will be updated as I get the videos loaded. But I have to publish now to get a URL for the YouTube descriptions. Hopefully, I'll have all of the trains added in a few days.
(new window) "The third unit is a warbonnet, #716. That means it is an older unit and worth looking up. #716 is a Dash 9-44CW / AC44Cm built in the Summer of 1997. The fact this unit is not in storage indicates the economy has picked up. The placard is 1267, so it is carrying crude oil."
(new window) "While I was videoing ComEd do some aerial truck work, an intermodal train rolled pass. That is why I'm out of position to get a trackside view."
20180912 1125 Eastbound Mixed Freight and 1128 Westbound Commuter
Screenshot
Railfanning is like fishing --- lots of boredom punctuated by the excitement of missing one. As I walked down to the tracks, I heard a train slowly honking its way from the west. So I stopped walking and took a video of the honking until the locomotives crossed Main Street. This screenshot illustrates why I'm not uploading the video --- I was too far away. But I was able to determine the train had three locomotives and started with a long cut of 3-bay covered hoppers (typically grain this time of the year).
It was moving slowly enough because of the construction that I significantly closer when I took a photo to record the end of the cut of hoppers to document that it was a mixed freight.
The lead unit is a typical "orange pumpkin." The second unit is a run-through Norfolk Southern unit. But the third unit is of interest because it has the Santa Fe inspired warbonnet livery. That means it is an older unit and worth looking up. #752 is a Dash 9-44CW / AC44Cm built in the Summer of 1997. The fact this unit is not in storage indicates the economy has picked up. The placard is 1267, so it is carrying crude oil.
BNSF typically used an old beat up covered hopper for its buffer car in oil trains. This buffer car caught my eye because it looks long enough to be a 3-bay hopper, but I can see only two bays. So I caught this view that shows the end. Then I was really surprised because it has the square end of a boxcar instead of the sloped side of a covered hopper. Then I was shocked to see it has a full ladder and a running board. Running boards disappeared in the 1960s. So did they take an old boxcar, add vertical outside bracing and a couple of hoppers and give it a fresh paint job? I assume they added hatches to the roof as well. If they are using sand, a car that long would have quite a bit of air. Has BNSF "kitbashed" a car that would crush easily in an accident?
(Facebooked) Jim BrewsterThat is an air slide car Dennis DeBrulerThanks. I've never noticed one before. http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3077946 Dennis DeBrulerSo the full ladder and running board is to access hatches in the roof.
I normally don't pay attention to commuters arriving at Downers because we have so many of them. But I was at the station taking photos of the replacement of the Main Street crossing so I took some video of an outbound Metra stopping at the station. They stopped the track work before the 4-min announcement on the PA. The train is honking because of the construction work. Downers Grove is a quiet zone, so we normally don't hear a horn. Since I'm learning to edit clips together, I stopped recording while it set in the station. But you will notice three clips after the original arrival clip. That is because, when it was leaving, it stopped twice before it actually got going. I've never seen it stop while leaving before. Each stop was about a minute long.
20180913 1441 Eastbound Mixed Freight
The two locomotives got past me without a video. It turns out this train was rather short. The covered hoppers and tank cars are typical. But this is the first time I have seen a single empty piggyback car and the special built flat car for wheel-axle sets. (Facebooked)
20180913 1529 Outbound Commuter
I didn't take any video since it was just another commuter stopping at the station and I was on the wrong side of Main Street to get a decent view. To cross Main Street, I have to walk back over to Warren Avenue because BNSF has barricaded off Main Street between Warren and the tracks.
(new window) I normally don't record the cars of an intermodal, especially when the train is on the close track. But when I noticed containers on piggyback cars and then so many "holes" in the load, I decided to let it run. This must have been some sort of clean-the-yard-out train because it is also kinda short. But it still had three locomotives.
There is no video of the locomotives for this train because I missed up hitting the record button and got footage of my feet after I thought I turned recording off. (This is not the first time I screwed up hitting the record button. At least I never screwed up when a daughter blew out candles on a birthday cake.)
On a Facebook group I follow, there was a question of weather or not Estes trucking has started using intermodal services. So I take photos of E trailers to document the usage. This is the most I have seen in one train --- 11. The shipper with the most trailers, as is typical, was UPS. J. B. Hunt uses containers.
Since Sam was heading upstream. On my way back home, I took US-6 to Bluff Road to drive down the roads to confirm that I could not see the Channahon fleeting area because of trees and No Trespassing signs.
The next day, I checked Sam:
1140: 298
It has gone upstream of Channahon, IL!
1144: 298.4
Is it going to stop at the Lemont fleeting area? Actually, since I learned yesterday that the web has a delay, did it stop?
1159: 298.8
I checked a little later, and it was still there, so I grabbed my camera and headed to the Veterans Memorial Trail.
I knew from previous trips that the Des Plaines River Drive has signs that indicate authorized personal only. So there is no trailhead parking for the Veterans Memorial Trail. Fortunately, there is a picnic spot on Bluff Road near the trail so that it is a fairly easy walk down the Veterans trail to the Centennial Trail that goes along the marine terminals. As one would expect, a chain link fence with barb wire blocks the view of a crane moving the covers from one end of an empty barge back across the top of the barge. I remember when they did not put covers over barges carrying coal, gravel, etc. (Of course, it has been a while since I have seen barges carryhing coal.) I always wondered what happened when it rained. Now they seem to cover empty barges as well.
But I learned there is something far worse than a chain-link fence: nature. Not just trees, but bushes and vinces. Sam Fleming was probably somewhere on the other side of the vegetation on the left. The fence with the yellow top is the Asian Carp Barrier.
The one gap was where a gate used to be. I could see a crane working, but not the barge it was working with.
I bought a video editor that advertised a stabilization option. But the results are not near as good as what YouTube did before they pulled that feature. And the program made my video files disappear from File Explorer and Photo! At least I installed it only on my laptop. File Explorer and Photo still work on my desktop. Since this was the first time I have seen a Link-Belt boom extend, I extracted the boom movement part of a video. If anybody knows of a good stabilization program, please recommend it in a blog comment.
When I got home, I verified Sam was behind those trees. In fact it stayed there for at least a few hours.
1444: 297.7
1458: 297.7
1647: 299.4
1929: 299.4
20180919 0522: 291.1, Lockport Lock. Even if the web did not have a delay, I don't think I could beat it to Joliet. And I determined that the next accessible viewing spot is Morris. By then, it has passed the Channonahon fleeting area and will be pushing a standard 15-barge tow. Plus, it might rain today.
1222: 287.2 Wow, it is still doing its own fleeting operations. It is now in the Joliet fleeting area, which is easy to view from the US-6 bridge. I got more photos of that area just two days ago. At 0500 this morning, it was at 292.
20180917 5808
1754 : 283.9 It has gone through the Brandon Locks because it is now down by Caterpillar.
1858: 279.5 The icon has changed from upbound to downbound. The direction column also has an "In Port" value, but I never saw that on the web page while it was in the area working the industries and its marine terminal.
1913: 278,9 So how long is Sam going to stay at the Channahon fleeting area?
1942: 278.1
2204: 278.1 Looks like Sam is staying here for the night. I wonder if the crew of the boat lives in this area and they have been getting shore leave during the nights it was in the area.
20180920 1626: 249.9 It looks like it has its 15 barges and is gone.
20180921 1419: 213.2
Last night it was on the Mississippi River a little downstream of the Illinois River mouth. It must have swapped tows quickly at a Mississippi facility because it has made good progress back up the Illinois River. In fact, she was at 159.2 at 0500 and is headed back downstream.
20180922 1301: 152.9
1907: The next closest tow is Marge Mcfarlin at the CGB elevator near Utica (229.4). It is like Sam --- a line-haul boat, but with a retractable pilothouse.
1911: 230.3 CGB just happens to be where I caught it. It is now upstream of IL-178.
1942: 230.7 It is now in the Starved Rock Lock. It should be here a while because 15-barge tows have to be split for two lockings.
2204: 230.8
20180920 1626: 268.1
20180920 1419: it was at 273.2 at 0500 and is now back down to 253 The crew must not be in this area because it turned and burned.
Ralph E. Plagge might also be headed to Chicagoland.
20180920 1626: 237.9
20180921 1419: 271.1 Probably waiting for Dresden Lock
20180922 1301: 259.2 Ralph was at 279.2 at 0500, so she has turned and burned.
Now Erna is the furthest upstream.
20180922 1301: 276.3
Gold Star Memorial Bridge, Thames River, CT plus Amtrak's lift bridge plus Old Town Mill with it vertical water wheel I was recently informed from a state trooper that the bridge is unsafe. It has become a very unfortunate secret.
Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge, Jamestown-Newport, RI, suspension with 400' towers, New England's longest This was a pioneering bridge: the first use of prefabricated parallel wire strand cables in a suspension bridge, where the strands are bound together at ground level and then unreeled onto the bridge. Prior to that, aerial spinning of wires was the norm. Each main cable is made up of 76 prefabricated strands. The bridge was also controversial because the original paint system failed within a year or two of opening; the contractor was found to be at fault.
I drove to Morris, IL to catch this pushboat going downstream. While I ate lunch, I tracked its progress and when it was getting close to where I wanted to catch it, I was done with lunch anyhow and took off to get it.
I never saw it. I went back to the bar and grill where I ate lunch to access the WiFi again. It showed it was where I just left the river!
When I went to the riverside park, I asked someone who had been setting there if he saw a tow go by. He said: "yes ,two of them." He estimated that they had gone by in the last 20 minutes. So the web site does not show the location in real time. There is evidently a 5-20 minute delay.
I did determine for future trips that this building seems to be an xfinitywifi hot spot. And the parking lot behind it is free.
While I was by the river, I did hear a train (CSX or IAIS) honk its way through Morris. It sounded like it was going westbound.
20180920 1626: 75.7
20180921 1419: 200.7 on Upper Mississippi. It was 20.5 at 0500. So was it still on the Illinois at 5am?
I have written about some of the RR bridges in downtown Columbus, OH. But because Google broke the author's keyword search function on April 3, 2018, it is too much work for me to find the bridge postings now. When I had studied the RR bridges, I noticed some trails might allow some nice closeup shots of the bridges. So when I went to a volleyball tournament in Columbus, I stayed an extra night so that I could hike the trails.
20180826 4204
Sometimes it is nice when my plans get screwed up by a road closure. In this case, I ended up in the parking lot of Hofbrauhaus Columbus. Each tank is labeled with a different type of beer.
I went inside to go to the restroom before I started my walk on the river trails. They have a couple of copper kettles behind the bar. Note the stainless steel pipes that connect the bar to the stainless steel tanks that are on the outside. I confirmed that their taps get beer from a tank, not a keg.
The pipes go over the gift shop and out of the building.
When I left, I saw they had even more tanks on another side of the building.
This is a decoration that they had out by Goodale Blvd. The front door is not by the street, it is on the other side facing the parking lot. But it is recessed so I missed it when I left the parking lot. But they do have a sign on their Goodale side saying "Not the Front Door."
After leaving Hofbrauhaus Columbus, I headed east on Goodale. CSX had done very little maintenance on this overpass. Note the handrail still has decorations. And it probably still has lead paint because you can see some of the letters for Chesapeake of the Chesapeake & Ohio name.
And there has been some noticeable spalling of the concrete. I can't believe there are just two longitudinal girders per track. I wonder if there are some longitudinal girders in the middle above those cross members. Below shows that BNSF used several longitudinal girders for each of the three tracks at the Belmont overpass.
20141011 0299
Oh boy, I'm getting close to a truss bridge. Once again, I'm reminded that it is easier to get photos of things when there are no leaves on the trees. Parts of the truss are peaking out between the leaves.
At least the trail gives me a clear view of the end of a truss. This truss bridge is part of the route that has the C&O overpass we saw above. It is now CSX.
(location) This is a truss bridge rather than a steel girder bridge, so it makes sense that the depth and number of the longitudinal girders is small. Note that there is a steel girder bridge on the right.
(location) Obviously, I'm now under the steel girder bridge and the truss bridge is on the left. Again, now that I'm looking at the photos, I'm surprised that we don't see more longitudinal girders. I realize now that I should have taken a photo straight up to see if I could find girders above the cross members. According to my 2005 SPV Map, this route used to be Pennsy and is now Norfolk Southern.
A close up of a truss, which allows the camera to compute a better exposure. It is a Warren Truss with vertical members.
I'm trying my best to find a view of the girder bridge through the trees that lined the river bank.
Still trying.
Looking back along the trail where I had walked.
Further downstream, there was not a fence along the trail and someone (fishermen?) made a tunnel through the trees. So I walked down to the river. The river was evidently running low because I was able to walk across some gravel beds. Note that sometimes the water runs deep enough here to have jammed tree trunks against the tree on the left.
I walked upstream trying to find a bigger gap in the trees.
This was as far into the river bed that I was willing to go. I see there is a road bridge peaking through to the left of the pier for the truss bridge. That would be Goodale Blvd.
On my way back out from the river bed, I took a photo of the "tunnel" through the trees that allowed me to access the river.
(location) The reason I took this photo was to capture the expansion gap in the ramp. And because the big I-670 bridge over the ramp bridge was kinda neat. It was rather hot (90+ degrees) when I took this photo. I wonder how much wider the gap is in the winter when the girders would have contracted because of the colder weather.
I was trying to get the tall piers of I-670 along with the piers for the ramp. In hindsight, I should have concentrated on the high I-670 piers. I deliberately minimized the white gap between the bridges to improve the exposure computation. The underside of I-670 is one of the best below deck exposures I have obtained. I wonder why they built the wide road so high and the narrower roads are lower. Most interchanges build the ramps above the main road. Unlike Chicago, the river is not navigable and the Coast Guard would not have specified a minimum height. (In Chicago, it is 60' for the Interstate highway. For some of the older railroad lift bridges, it was even higher.)
There is an egret just to the left of the branch sticking out in the middle of the photo. I quick grabbed this shot for fear it would fly away.
But it turned out that I had plenty of time to get a photo of the egret. I was on the trail during a Sunday afternoon, and there were quite a few bicyclists using it. Some of them were going pretty fast. So if the egret is used to that commotion, me standing on the trail is obviously no big deal. Plus the width of the river makes the distance between the bird and me much larger than when I spot a bird in the I&M Canal.
A closer view of the bird and the rapids.
I'm now out on the US-33 bridge even though it has no shoulder, let alone a sidewalk, looking upstream. We can see that Paddle in the City evidently has some business.
Looking downstream I see where the next RR bridge is and part of the downtown.
But the reason I'm on the bridge is to get around the trees on the near shore and get a shot of this smokestack. Note all of the power lines.
Turning around and looking the other direction I see this big steel pole that turns the wires 90-degrees...
...so that they can head south. I suspect that the high voltage lines were added rather recently to bring electricity into the city and that the power plant has been shut down.
(location) I'm on a pedestrian bridge that takes a branch of the trail across the river. In addition to the smokestack, we can now see the power generating building and part of the switch yard.
I switched back to photos fast enough that I caught part of the engines. It appears that once again a cloudy sky is messing up the camera's white balance computation. Or do I need to learn something else about my Nikon D3200?
It looks like a loaded CSX coal train.
I watched the train a while until...
...I was convinced that it was a unit coal train.
There is a white egret on the right in the water and a dark egret on the left on the gravel.
I took a wider angle to note that, once again, an egret was near a rapids. It also occurred to me that the river in the right background is the Scioto River. I have been walking along the Olentangy River. I'm looking at where the Olentangy flows into the Scioto.
(new window) "The train I saw on a river bridge, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkJ8M..., seems to be all hoppers and seems to be moving faster. Again, the reason for taking a short video instead of photos is because that is the easiest way to record the speed of the train. And because the movement of the cars helps you spot them in among all of the trees."
A full view of the switchyard and the transmission lines that are probably now feeding the local distribution lines that used to be fed by the power station.
Clean Fuels Ohio using an office building near here and vacant land instead of a coal pile are other indications that this plant has been shut down. Or at least converted to gas. In the winter, you can tell if a plant is running because a water vapor plume comes out of the smokestack. But the EPA got rid of black smoke pretty soon after it was created. It has been working on other emissions such as sulfur, mercury, CO2, etc. since then.
No motorized vehicles are allowed unless you are a park ranger.
This is a newer paint job than the C&O one we already saw. But is it new enough to use lead-free paint?
Someone cut an access lane through the trees that lined the trail. This is the bridge that carried the CSX train that we saw in the videos above.
Looking the other direction.
The trail goes down below the RR bridge.
I grabbed a shot with some bicyclists near the bridge to help provide scale for the bridge. I blocked out the faces to preserve privacy. And I do mean "grab." They were moving rather quickly.
(location) It appears that CSX's idea of fixing spalling is to pick it up and pile it under the bridge. In the bridge bearings, I wonder which plane surface slides. I would expect it to be able to slide to and away from the abutment, but not side-to-side. It's not clear to me how that design achieves that one degree of movement.
After walking past the embankment wall, it occurred to me that I could go up the hill on the other side of the wall and have some really nice views of this bridge.
I think the racks on the side carried signalling (code) lines before the train signalling technology switched to using fiber optic cables.
A detail of the end since I was right there.
While I was on the hill, I took a photo of the next RR bridge that is downriver.
Now I'm back on the trail grabbing views when I find a gap in the treeline.
A drain into the river gave me a bigger gap in the treeline.
Perhaps some flowers in the foreground makes it a better photo. Once again, I need to play with Gimp to see if it can help with buildings against white clouds.
The bridge is long enough that I could not get the whole thing in one shot with the lens set at 18mm. Clearly, these two spans are newer than the other three. Since the old spans rest on cut-stone piers and these two rest on a concrete pier, I assume the previous spans failed because the pier failed. It is interesting that this pier is the one that failed. A 3D Satellite view confirms that this pier is on the inside of a curve in the river. Normally, the current is faster on the outside edge of a curve and would be more likely to scour the base of the pier.
A detail of one of the original spans.
All three of the older spans.
Looking back upstream, this is the bridge we saw the train on.
There is another RR bridge further downstream, but I didn't have a water bottle and my body had been sore since before I saw the power plant. So I headed back up to street level to go back to the van and took this "fairwell" shot that includes the trail.
Given the expression "no pain, no gain," I had better have gained something on this trip. Fortunately, the soreness was a general muscle soreness, and it did not get much worse during the last three-fourths of the walk. I was surprised, and disappointed, how quickly I got sore.
I don't know if the overpass was rebuilt or just painted. It does appear the bridge abutment has been rebuilt. I can see additional longitudinal girders above the cross members in this view.
In fact, the overpass has been so recently "painted" that there are drippings all over the sidewalk and street. I put the word painted in quotes because my experience is that paint doesn't create long splats like that when it hits the ground. The shapes remind more more of tar-like droppings.
The sign on the left says "TO GOODALE." Thank goodness I was walking and thus going slow enough to be able to see and read this sign. It saved me some steps.
The underside of I-670 as seen from Vine Street. It looks like concrete girders to me.
They had several crews working around town to take advantage of almost no traffic downtown during a Sunday. Although I had to wait a while to walk out in the street past that sidewalk repair because there was a significant line of cars streaming by just when I needed to use the street. Murphy's Law in action.
They raised the bed of the truck so that the excavator could scoop asphalt right out of the truck.
I wonder if the almost 90-degree bend in the boom is to help it work under bridges but still have a good reach.
They added a whole separate bridge for the trail to cross the river and OH-315.
Closely packed road bridges are upstream. Looking at a map, these are various ramps between OH-315 and local roads.
But that separate bridge prevents you from crossing Goodale when you spot the RR bridge on the other side. So I backtracked, crossed the road to the south side, and got this view of the first RR bridge I saw on the trail.
When you get over the trail and...
...OH-315 they erect a chain link fence with the smallest holes I have ever seen. I guess they want to make sure that any rock or other "mischief" (vandalism) shoved through the fence
This is the other side of the first overpass we saw. I can see the words "AND" and "OHIO" on this side.
I took this photo to record the vertical clearance of 13' 9", which was probably pretty high when this bridge was built.
When I got back around 1pm, I went in the Hofbrauhaus Columbus to eat. They were still serving a brunch menu. I had a nice ham, Swiss cheese and egg croisant sandwich with a side of fruit. And the bowl of fruit was large. The amount of fruit surprised me because the price was rather cheap. There was also live entertainment. But I didn't care about the entertainment because they had wireless so I read the Chicago Tribune on my laptop while I ate.
