Bridge and more, help and suggestions.

[ovrszd]

Also i think i may find another culvert to add to the other two just for insurance. I am thinking big rocks, broekn up concrete is my best bet here.

Yep. Looking at the pictures, you have no high banks on either side to allow you to add several feet of dirt to create a dam and make the water go thru the culverts. Adding a little dirt on top of them won't solve anything and it'll get washed away first heavy rain. Go for rocks, concrete, whatever you can find. Adding another culvert would help if you have one. Can't use a bigger culvert obviously because of the shallow banks.

 

[mjncad]

I was able to find free railroad ties, apparently it is illegal to sell them.

WTF? Is nanny-state meddler Bloomberg out to ban railroad ties now?

 

[RBA50]

Bloomberg is the mayor of NYC, (and has nothing to do with state regulation). Rochester is on the extreme other side of the state, quite literally as far as you can get from NYC and still be in NY state (about 600 miles).

Most likely, creosote is considered a hazardous material, making it fall under strict regs as far as sale or disposal. NY has become very serious about protecting the environment.

 

[CliffordK]

What is "Flood Stage" like?

If you mounded enough dirt and rock over the culverts, it might force the water to go around your "bridge", and thus not wash out your work. Perhaps washing out somewhere else. However, damming up the stream may be undesireable, especially if the culverts get clogged with debris.

 

[beeforty]

How far apart are your beams? More than likely they may be 60" +or- due the width of standard rail is 54" on the inside and all the weight of the train is the rails centered on the beams, with the wood holding the rail on top. If you open the gap between your cross members and then only use 2X for runners, you will have lot of flex in the 2X's as you go from tie to tie. the thicker the runners (lengthwise) the easier it is to spread the load on the adjoining crossties. Also if you are driving something with a wider tread width than your beams then all your weight will be on wood hanging over the edge of the beam and wanting to potentially break off. My bridge and all my neighbors have their beams set at semi truck wheel width so the propane truck doesn't fall through when making a delivery. It's a lot of work to redeck a bridge so make sure anything you leave down is really good because a good top will go bad fast with a weak bottom.

 

[paintman161]

I did a little research and came up with the standard rail spacing was 4'-8.5" apart, which my tractor is about 4'-0" to center of the rear tires. So I should be pretty close to be right over those beams. If you screw down the 2x runners you should not have much of a flex at a spacing of 8".

 

[IkeRoberts]

Do you know why the Saturn rockets are the size they are? They were shipped by rail and the tunnels were only wide enough to accommodate the 4' 8 1/2" width of the rails.
Do you know why the rails are 4' 8 1/2" wide? They were built by the old rail builders who emmigrated here from Europe.
Do you know why Europe's rails are 4' 8 1/2" apart? They were built on the old roads and trails that were constructed by the roman empire.
Do you know why the roman empire built the roads 4' 8 1/2" wide? Because they traveled by horse and cart in those days. The cart had to run outside the horse's heels so as not to injure them.
Do you know what that means? The Saturn rockets were designed around a set of horse's rears.

 

[bcp]

Rail gauges in the early US were all over the place, from 2 feet to 6 feet. The federally funded transcontinental railroad was legislated to be 4 feet 8.5 inches, which was what many of the NE railroads happened to be. Most railroads then changed to that, if they were not already there, so they could interchange cars easily.

Track gauge in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bruce

 

[GolfAddict]

Sorry, no suggestions that haven't already been made, but just got to say -

Looks like you have some seriously awesome property!!

Your own railroad bridge to cross the river to the rest of your land? That is just so cool!

 

[mjncad]

Bloomberg is the mayor of NYC, (and has nothing to do with state regulation). Rochester is on the extreme other side of the state, quite literally as far as you can get from NYC and still be in NY state (about 600 miles).

Most likely, creosote is considered a hazardous material, making it fall under strict regs as far as sale or disposal. NY has become very serious about protecting the environment.

Dang, I wish TBN had a sarcasm smiley. I know Nanny-state **** Bloomberg has no direct bearing on state regulations; but it sure sounds like something that meddling dick of a politician would decide to ban.