Interesting. Great pics K. Man! Hadda truck my ass up past that bridge when a lumber train stalled coming down from Sumas. Very old EMDs. The TM dispatched two Geeps up ta pull the train into Balmer. They ran outa fuel!
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Hmm. That address doesnt look right. It looks like the link pointing here was faulty.
Well I have a few more pictures to add...the trains that came across. Every train going across the bridge feels/is like an earthquake going on. Takes some getting used to. Rollbys from a foot away and hooping up orders. Thankfully its 10mph across the bridge but when 125 car loaded coal train crossing the earthquake lasts a long time. The "Bridge Shanty" lasted until 1995 when a new shanty was placed on top of the bridge. Yes I was the lucky one to be working when this transition took place. So with the new shanty on top means climbing stairs to get there and to get down. The incinerator Mark X toilet down trackside. Bridge inspections got to go down stairs. Also included with the new shanty was an auto control bridge swing to open and close button. This feature opened the bridge to the proper spot and stopped and closed to proper spot. I can tell you that was one great thing. Prior to that it was a lever with a knob that you moved one way to get the bridge opening and when you thought it was time to stop you moved the lever to straight up which was brake. The brakes on the bridge you needed to test daily to see how good/bad they were. Overswings very common and you dont want to go too far or .... But the test of your bridge swinging skills is the alignment with the tracks and do you have it on target when you press the bridge lock button. I've seen others hit the bridge lock button almost 2ft off target and a huge shake/shutter as the bridge lifts and locks into place. I got an hour of video of "bridge life" that I hope I can share someday. So pictures of trains going across Bridge 37 might be kind of rare as only employees can be there. After the BNSF merger in 1995 I dint take any pictures. The view from the top of bridge not good. Then the rumours...of eliminating all clerks job on west coast. 15 years of working this bridge is enough I think.
One day at the bridge the typewriter went bad order. I think it was an IBM Seletric or something. Got to get a new/working typewriter delivered to the bridge ASAP because we were still typing out train orders and line-ups. Everett depot found one and got it out to the bridge right away to my delight/relief. So I called the Everett Terminal Manager to ask what to do with the B/O typewriter and he said you can throw it in the river for all I care. So I planned a plan to freakout my relief just about the time he was close to entering the office door. I ran out the office with the B/O typewriter over my head and yelling and tossed the typewriter into the river. Made a big splash. I'm sure he thought I went nutzo which was the plan. He thought I was throwing a "perfectly good" typewriter into the river. Not so Kimosabe. Plenty of broken office equipment tossed into the river and a few chairs. At one point in time in the 80's the BN was experiencing a shortage of portable radios on the Bellingham Sub and the idea to have Bridge 37 hand-off and receive portable radios lasted about 3 months. There is no training in handing off a portable radio to another person so to make a short story shorter a lot of fumbled hand-offs/catches had the portable radio in the river. After 5 or 6 portable radios lost to the river the plan changed. Stupid plan to begin with but it was just one of 100's.
-- Edited by The Krink on Thursday 25th of April 2019 01:41:53 AM
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If you are in a horror movie, you make bad decisions, its what you do.
