In May 1981 we searched around Smiths Falls to find the local railway features on our way to Ottawa. This post looks at aspects of the CNoR/CNR artifacts we photographed.
An unusual artifact of the Canadian Northern days is the Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge over the Rideau Canal.
Westbound trains to Toronto ... leaving Smiths Falls ... would disappear in the distance (above) and eventually reach Napanee (in recent CNR days) or Deseronto and points west (travelling beyond Napanee along the old CNoR main line).
Early in my brief museum volunteer career at Smiths Falls it was made clear to many of us that this was not properly called a 'bascule' bridge. It is a 'rolling lift bridge' or 'Scherzer'.
What makes this design unique is the fact that: the deck holding the track (the 'leaf') and the counterweight are permanently joined to form a rigid unit; the whole assembly rolls away from the ship channel as it opens; the final position of the open leaf can be close to 90 degrees to clear ship masts.
Westbound trains to Toronto ... leaving Smiths Falls ... would disappear in the distance (above) and eventually reach Napanee (in recent CNR days) or Deseronto and points west (travelling beyond Napanee along the old CNoR main line).
Maps of the route:
Early in my brief museum volunteer career at Smiths Falls it was made clear to many of us that this was not properly called a 'bascule' bridge. It is a 'rolling lift bridge' or 'Scherzer'.
What makes this design unique is the fact that: the deck holding the track (the 'leaf') and the counterweight are permanently joined to form a rigid unit; the whole assembly rolls away from the ship channel as it opens; the final position of the open leaf can be close to 90 degrees to clear ship masts.
So that the rolling surface does not slip away, 'teeth' on the 'track girder' engage with 'sockets' on the curved 'tread' (the part like a rocking chair). You can see some of the teeth protruding from the track girder above.
You can also see two metal assemblies mounted on top of ... the sides of ... the raised bridge 'leaf'. Those once held signal devices for shipping and they can be can be seen in mint condition on the catalog page below.
You can also see two metal assemblies mounted on top of ... the sides of ... the raised bridge 'leaf'. Those once held signal devices for shipping and they can be can be seen in mint condition on the catalog page below.
 |
| from: Hiram L Piper Co catalog; obtained circa 1962, Montreal. |
Interesting ... but it seems you can use a 'bascule' bridge signal on a 'Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge'!
The spectacle red and green glass is not shown above, but would fit into the curved cutout - to display red when the bridge was across the watercourse and green after it had cleared the shipping channel. The kerosene burner needed to be maintained in a vertical position, regardless of the position of the leaf, so the curved spectacle enabled the pivoting lamp to provide an 'automatic' indication to approaching ships.
In its early years of operation, there was apparently no electricity supplied to the bridge.
This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.
This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.
Some leaders at the museum saw the museum as the moral custodian of the bridge and I was sent up the steps to the catwalks to measure chains or to help secure the bridge tender's cabin (long before it was burnt out by some of Smiths Falls' many talented vandals). Consequently, I was shown how this marvellous design was (before electrification) operated by a crank in the hands of the bridge tender.
Above, I think you can see the crank hanging down in the 'six o'clock' position of my darkened square above. On this side, the chain had been removed to prevent vandals (or moral custodians) from moving the bridge without authorization. I was sent to the far side to measure the remaining chain for possible 'custom chain manufacturing' in Mexico - just across the border from where one museum leader was wintering at the time.
... This was back in the early 1990s, and a resounding 'crack' under my foot from a board of the wooden catwalk helped me understand that there should be limits to a volunteer's determination to help the institution succeed. It was the last time I went up there.
... This was back in the early 1990s, and a resounding 'crack' under my foot from a board of the wooden catwalk helped me understand that there should be limits to a volunteer's determination to help the institution succeed. It was the last time I went up there.
A bridge like this is designed and then calibrated to be balanced - I guess with a slight advantage given to getting the leaf back down.
To raise it, the bridge tender would turn his crank many, many times with little progress to show for each turn (think of a car in first gear - or a steam engine travelling up a cog railway). The bridge's gearing would transmit this force to 'pinion gears' running (away from the water) along 'racks' - on both sides.
... As the bridge tender, his crank, the gear mechanism, and the pinion gear(s) all moved their way along the rack(s) and the catwalk, the leaf of the bridge would slowly rise. Notice in the photo that the crank and pinion gear are not quite at the end of the rack - suggesting that the bridge could still have been raised a little more. ... No deep-keeled 'tall ships' went up the Rideau so reaching 90 degrees wasn't a major consideration for this particular bridge.
The fact that the Rideau Canal was then a low-traffic obsolete transportation system which couldn't be operated in the Canadian winter made the hand-crank arrangement possible. In a place like Chicago, with significant amounts of conflicting rail and water traffic, they would have used commercial power for quick, reliable operation - particularly as lubricants congealed in the cold.
Looking timetable east toward the Smiths Falls station and Ottawa you can see the various sheds and buildings which grew up around the station and its trackage during the line's busy years.
While the lift span articulates with a short fixed span to the timetable 'west', the long span above is separate from the rest of the bridge and crosses an area of water held by a retention dam (with its own spillway) necessary for the operation of the canal.
Above the door to the former 'Ladies' Waiting Room' (historically: for women travelling alone, etc) is a sign in 1960s-era CNR printing indicating that this is indeed still, at least technically, a waiting room. While the main windows are boarded up, some of Smiths Falls' finest vandals have volunteered their time and efforts to ensure it will not be stuffy inside for railway patrons.
Inside, there may be no heat ... but at least this main floor area actually still has a floor - one which has not been destroyed by basement flooding and 'frost heaving' over the years. Beyond, in the main waiting room, the main floor was actually in the basement.
About 70 years before our visit, this is how the Canadian Northern Railway described this line and their other lines in Ontario.
 |
| from: Commercial Canada; ed: Fred Cook; circa 1913; Redman Book Co, Leeds, England. |
The 15 mph speed limit over the Rideau Canal Drawbridge is show above.
Scheduled traffic was light.
In the failing light of a fall day in 1977, a future Canadian railway author of note
can be seen with CNR 6060 at Sydenham, Ontario.
Heavy locomotives were still able to cross over
the Scherzer rolling lift bridge which the CNoR constructed at Smiths Falls.
After posting:
Jim Christie sent me this link to an interesting 1916 book which outlines the
Scherzer rolling lift bridges : their inception, development and use.
The bridge at Smiths Falls is included in their list of world-wide installations.
They also write:
"The Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge being today universally known
as the standard of excellence in bascule bridge design." !