Railway Swing Bridges And New Cuts

[JennyMorgan]

46 minutes ago, OldBerkshireBoy said:

Wot no bookies?  

Or charity shops?

[Greygreaser]

swinging the bridge

I found this in a search i was doing on the Reedham swing bridge - i believe the Somerleyton swing bridge has the same mechanism. Certainly sailing up both rivers and waiting for the bridges to ‘swing’ i could hear similar noises as the bridge lifts, unlatches and then the cables pull it round. I have in the 60s seen the signal man using a large hand wheel to wind the cables

SOMERLEYTON SWING BRIDGE
OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS
To Open Bridge
1.
Reverse levers Nos. 3, 2 and 4.
2.
Reverse console isolating lever.
3.
Switch on pump motor.
Place toggle lever in RAISE position and hold until JACKS RAISED indicator lamp
is illuminated.
5.
6.
Turn wedges wheel until wedges indicator shows OUT.
Place t°Kfimlexecd'" LOWER position and. hold until JACKS LOWERED indicator
7.
Return console isolating lever to normal position.
8.
Switch on bridge slewing motor.
9.
Turn bridge until indicator shows correct position.
10.
Return No.
4 lever to normal position.
11.
Switch off bridge slewing motor.
To Close Bridge
1.
Switch on bridge slewing motor.
2.
Turn bridge until bridge indicator shows HOME and latches indicator shows IN.
3.
Switch off bridge slewing motor.
4.
Reverse console isolating lever.
5.
Switch on pump motor.
6.
Place toggle lever in RAISE position and hold until JACKS RAISED indicator lamp
is illuminated.
7.
Turn wedges wheel until wedges indicator shows UNDER
8.
kalage:,59Rflnilexed.in LOWER position and hold until JACKS LOWERED indicator
9.
Return console isolating lever to normal position.
10.
Return levers Nos. 2 and 3 to Normal position

[Bytheriver]

Here is a Network Rail Video taken July 2021 

 

[Grahamkuk]

The original swing bridges at Somerleyton and Reedham were manually operated using winches. There were railway cottages adjacent to the bridges where the operatives lived. In 1904 when the bridges were replaced, electric winches were installed and are still in operation today.

[TheQ]

On 25/10/2022 at 11:01, Grahamkuk said:

The original swing bridges at Somerleyton and Reedham were manually operated using winches. There were railway cottages adjacent to the bridges where the operatives lived. In 1904 when the bridges were replaced, electric winches were installed and are SOMETIMES still in operation today.

corrected for you

[Bytheriver]

There have been teams of engineers & others working for the past 10 days certainly at Reedham with several presumably trial openings yesterday. Looks like  all ready for normal operation from Monday. Whilst it is unlikely to have cured the expanding superstructure in hot weather problems it should eliminate the fairly frequent need for mobile engineers having to attend to correct faults. Hopefully the Railway media ( Rail Magazine & others) will carry a update in the next few weeks.

The Ship will hopefully have its Car Park back in the next day or so!

[gancanny]

last tuesday i counted 13 men around reedham bridge and 10 vehicles, (vans),  there were 9 men at the bottom of the cut opposite the entrance to st olaves marina plus 6 vans, then at least a dozen men at somerleyton bidge, lets hope some faults were rectified,  34 men and a fleet of service vehicles

[ZimbiIV]

34 men, BUT thats only 2 working.

The rest are managers, supervisors, overseers and health and safety!

paul