Bill Caloroso- Cal’s Classics
Bill Caloroso – Cal’s Classics
I am not sure of the exact location of this bridge along the SNY right-of-way. I have seen “High Bridge” mentioned in some sources, but I am not sure if this is the referenced bridge. I have traced the RoW with the aerial photos from the late 1930’s on the PSU Penn Pilot website, but the resolution is not adequate to resolve the details of any particular bridge.
Photo by Author
Photo by Author
In December of 2000, I shot these photos of abandoned bridge abutments along Pleasant Stream between Marsh Hill and Masten. This could be the location of the bridge; hard to tell since the surrounding vegetation has changed so much. Also, there is no higher vantage point on the west/north side of Pleasant Stream to duplicate the angle of view in the original photo, unless it was shot from the other side of the creek. There was major flooding along Pleasant Stream in the fall of 2011, washing out road bridges and greatly altering the landscape of the narrow valley. I attempted to repeat the trip in the fall of 2012, but the road was still in such bad shape (I was driving the family’s Honda Odyssey van, not my 4wd truck) I was forced to turn around and head back to Marsh Hill after covering only about 2 miles. Consequently, I have no idea if these crumbling abutments still exist.
Photos by Author
Photo by Author
These photos illustrate my feeble attempt at representing this bridge on my model version of the SNY. It was kitbashed using an Atlas Warren truss deck bridge, Micro Engineering bridge bents, and a Micro Engineering deck girder bridge. The concrete abutments and pier are scratchbuilt from wood and styrene. Unfortunately, I realized too late the real bridge used a Pratt-type deck for the longest portion, not a Warren like the Atlas model, and the overall proportions of the model are pretty off, compared with the prototype. Nonetheless, my goal was a “good enough” representative structure, not an exact replica. The main goal is an operational (model) railroad, not a museum diorama, so the bridge was put in place, some scenery forms roughed-in so the fascia could be applied to the benchwork, and I moved on to the next project.
To answer the question if the bridge abutments are still there, I was fishing in the area during the summer of 2020 and they are still there but are even harder to find due to a large amount of trees and logs that have accumulated at the abutment during high waters. The locations is the vicinity of Short Run, this is the location where the railroad crossed over from the northwest side of the valley to the southeast side of the valley.
I wonder if there was a road under the near side of the bridge. One of OW LInk’s famous nite shots, with some Luray VA, kids swimming in the Hawksbill Creek while an A-class passes overhead, shows the two types of trusses. There’s a concrete road bridge that crossed the stream at roughly a 45 degree angle and then ducked under the N&W. The girders provided more clearance for trucks and tractors than the trusses.