The span leads into the 900' Cowee Tunnel, which is not in the greatest shape.
The scenery around the railroad was spectacular. Although the majority of the trees had lost their leaves, the hillsides were still very beautiful.
The weather was pretty cool, in the mid-30s, but there was no precipitation or wind. The region was much cleaner than I expected and I didn't notice any Deliverance-type behavior.
We inspected numerous timber trestles, which involves tapping the timber with a rod to listen for hollow sounds. Timber typically rots from the inside, so inspectors cannot readily detect defects in the wood. Our next big bridge was a steel truss crossing the Tuckasegee in Bryson City. We climbed to the top of the truss to inspect the top chords and to check for pin deterioration. We were lucky that a train happened to be crossing while we on top of the structure and were able to detect some pin wear.
The longest structure on the line is the Ela Trestle, which has over 32 bents. Inspecting all of the timber made my arm pretty sore from tapping, but it was worth it. 
After a long day of inspection, we drove back to the railroad yard. In their yard, they had the remnants from the movie set from "The Fugitive," including two destroyed Illinois Department of Corrections buses and two wrecked locomotives.
My boss and I did our best to impersonate Harrison Ford.
On Wednesday we were all in for a treat. Many of the structures on this section of the line were more easily accessible by the railroad, rather than by vehicle, so we had our own locomotive and caboose to chauffeur us around. Having the locomotive with us allowed us to load test each structure to monitor the deflection of certain components. This was very valuable for our assessment. 
The first two hours involved riding the train to our destination. It was pretty rough. :)
Here is a video of a load test of tipping bent that we were concerned with. The locomotive really strained the timber. You could hear the structure groaning and crunching under the engines tremendous weight. The first run I was under the structure and got totally freaked out after I heard all the racket eminating from the structure. The next time we ran away from the structure to get the train engineer nervous. The video does not do the deflection justice
After some more inspections and load test, we drove the train into Andrews and grabbed some lunch. 
It seemed funny to me to drive a locomotive into town to grab a pizza buffet.
On the way back, we caught a few more timber trestles, including a very tall one crossing a small gully.
We got to ride on the front deck of the train on the return trip, which was one of the coolest things I have ever done. I tried to not act like I was on vacation, but it certainly was fun.
How about this seat?!?! On Thursday, we finished off the rest of the structures. This time we rode in a hirail along the railroad.
The first structure of the day was the VERY tall Fontana trestle. The rail is roughly 100' off the water. The location was very picturesque that early in the morning and with some remaining autumn colors.
Climbing the truss was quite an exhilarating experience, especially when I watched my hammer slip from my holster and slowly fall into the water.
The small shadow at the top of the truss would be me walking along the top chord.
Here is a first person video of walking on top of the truss roughly 150' above the water. Yehaw!
Since I couldn't possibly articulate this amazing experience, I'll let pictures (too many, I know!) do the talking.
Since I couldn't possibly articulate this amazing experience, I'll let pictures (too many, I know!) do the talking.
http://picasaweb.google.com/N.Marshall.80/GreatSmokyMountainRailroad#
1 comment:
My grandparents used to live outside of Andrews, I know exactly where you were. :)
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