Mill Creek Central Trestle Project
This trestle had been planned for many years. Structural steel had been collected, track plans developed for each side and the approaches rough graded. The project was started in earnest mid summer 2006 with completion planned for early spring 2007.
Note that this structure was initially described as a bridge. However, trestle is more accurate in that it is a structure consisting of a number of short spans supported by splayed vertical elements. Early trestles were constructed of wood timbers while steel has been the preferred material for the last 75 years.
The trestle was completed (except for a few cosmetic items) in May of 2007 and put into service at that time.
The first locomotive on the trestle was a small one .......
After this initial test run, diesels were used to haul track and ballast to the south side to construct track there. Finally, at the spring meet May 18-20 we were able to get steam locomotives across the trestle --- it is rock solid.
This next photo shows engineer Scott Kuhn pulling a long passenger train with the MCC Northern locomotive.
The leaves are out so it's hard to see the train when it's in the middle of the trestle. The next photo taken from the south end shows that Scott made it across the trestle.
