N&W in 1909--Bridge

[NW Mailing List]

Walt:  The two bridges were dead side-by-side by alignment with the new
bridge to the east, down-river side.  The 'kink' coming down from Columbus
was due to the fact that the Marietta & Cincinnati (B&O) had shops and the
depot there in Chillicothe before the Scioto valley came through;  1876 vs
1853 for the M&C.    The Scioto Valley came eastbound/south until it crossed
the river at right angles then it had to angle west to clear the shop
buildings and get over to the station area before heading south to Renick
and Lunebeck.  It followed the Ohio & Erie canal part of the way too and
that influenced some of the direction choices.  Ohio 104 and the N&W
parallel the canal and the railroad used long portions of the tow path in
the 1900's from Chillicothe to Waverly.  Don't forget the main part of town
was west of the M&C shops and up against the hills to the west.  So the
Scioto Valley Ry had to get close to the downtown area for the business.
Today's bridge sits upon the right of way for the original two-track bridge
washed out in 1913. 

 

Note that the N&W freight house sat just north of the Chillicothe depot and
the Main Street/ US 50 overpass until a couple of years ago.  

 

At Renick, the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton (to become part of the B&O in
1917) crossed underneath Chillicothe on its way to Jackson County and the
coal fields.  The tracks on the east side of Chillicothe reflect (loosely)
the routes of the two railroads, CH&D and M&C, but the track were rearranged
a bunch in the 1980's with the creation of Chessie and the combining of the
CH&D, M&C and C&O trackage.  

 

Note also that the SV Ry picked the easy route relative to the amount of
fill necessary by jumping to the west bank of the Scioto River above
Chillicothe and going down to Waverly before jumping back to the east side
and going down to Portsmouth.  The C&O Northern Division used much more fill
on its side in its quest for a low grade line there.  But, it had the
advantage of being built 50 years later than the SV Ry.  

 

As to the 1913 flood, it took out the bridge at Chillicothe leaving just the
abundments on the banks, washed out or damaged the bridge at Paint Creek
down by Renick, completely washed away the northern and southern approaches
to the Scioto River Bridge at Waverly Glen Jean and rolled up the tracks at
the Waverly interchange and sidings.  The tower at Glen Jean was almost
undercut by scouring; its deep concrete foundation was the only thing
keeping it out of the river.  

 

At Vera, the bridge to the Cincinnati district had damage to the east bank
abundment and the eastern pier was undercut by scouring so that it dropped
12-15 feet.  The bridge over Brush Creek just to the west was damaged too.

 

Portsmouth had about 10 feet.of water over the entire yard.

 

In the 1937 flood it was all worse although flood control projects reduced
the amount of flash flood damage.  The water was deeper by about ten feet. 

 

The PRR published a thick book about the 1913 flood which is some hair
raising reading about what flooding can do.  The PRR had both the PFtW&C and
Pan Handle mainlines nearly obliterated.   

 

Gary Rolih

Cincinnati

 

 

  _____  

From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org
[mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2009 2:04 PM
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: Re: N&W in 1909--Bridge

 

How do the alignments of these two prior bridges look compared to today's
alignment? I have always thought that the approach to Chillicothe was
somewhat of an awkward one from the west.

Whit Wardell
Canal Winchester, OH

And the new, second bridge was for the double track program and was a deck 
girder bridge while the previous bridge was a through truss. Unfortunately, 
in March of 1913, this new bridge was obliterated by the big flash flood of 
that date. The 1913 flood was a real biggie which wiped out most of the 
railroad and interurban bridges and tracks in the state of Ohio. 



Gary Rolih 

Cincinnati 

 

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