Bridge plates

Gents -

 

Earlier this spring, Richard Vetter of R&IS delivered two custom reproduced bridge plates to HVRM.  Over a number of Saturdays, I have been priming and painting both sides of those two plates.  There has been some question as to what exactly, the bridge plates are for.  I have included a photo of the two plates (one in primer and the other in its finished coat of paint) as they sit back in the West Annex of our shop building.  I was at IRM in Union, Illinois this past Sunday, and took a photo of a TTX piggyback flatcar which shows a bridge plate in place.  Although that car is a 75' long car, while ours is a 50' car, the principle is the same.  Now that the two plates are painted, they will have to be mounted up on TTX 475037 one of these days.

 

On the other side of the plate at IRM, a non skid material was applied to the steel

to prevent trucks wheels from slipping if it was raining or snowing. Remember back

in the early years, semi trucks would have to back onto the flat car to pull out every

trailer, same way to load. push the trailer on to the car. Later on cranes would

do the work. Plenty of humps on the trailer car would make it hard to position

a trailer in the correct position. The drivers must of been pretty good at this

job and got use to the bumps.

 

When installed, these plates will have to be lifted by a payloader, as they are

quite heavy.  After installation, the plates will be in the upright position and be

locked in with a sliding bar into a round tube.

 

Hope that explains things.

 

Les