Drawbridge on the WDW RR?

S

Spideyfreak110

Member
Original Poster
Hey all, I've been lurking here for a while now. I searched the forum but didn't find anything on this...

http://tinyurl.com/cnrfad

If you check out the aerial view at the link above, take a look at the river around Tom Sawyer's Island. It appears that the maintenance area for the paddlewheel boats is on the other side of the train bridge, as I do not see one around the island, and there is a dock in the backstage area. So for the paddlewheel boats to get to the maintenance dock and back, they must cross the tracks. My question is: Is the train bridge just after BTMRR a drawbridge?

Play around with the overhead pictures a bit and look at the bridge the train passes over after passing BTM. It seems as if the clearance is too low for the large boats to pass under. So logic tells me it's a drawbridge.

Does anyone know for sure though? Or can anyone second my opinion?

Thanks.
 
rkelly42

rkelly42

Well-Known Member
That is a good question. I would say it is not a rotating one because there does not look to be enough clearance from the trees to rotate. Also no sign of a drawbridge either. Maybe there is some sort of piston that lifts that section of bridge straight up from that lone pylon in the water? Just a thought.
 
Master Yoda

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
rkelly42 said:
That is a good question. I would say it is not a rotating one because there does not look to be enough clearance from the trees to rotate. Also no sign of a drawbridge either. Maybe there is some sort of piston that lifts that section of bridge straight up from that lone pylon in the water? Just a thought.
Click to expand...
From the default picture the bridge would rotate clockwise. If you rotate the image around the bridge you will see a clearing that will allow it to rotate in that direction.
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
It's a rotating bridge, as Master Yoda said. (If you switch the view to Bird's Eye view and rotate to either East or West, you can see the support pylon that's off-set in the water, around which the bridge rotates. And it only has to rotate about 60 degrees to get out of the way, parallel to the canal)

And if I'm correctly recalling what an acquaintance who used to be a conductor on the railroad said, for safety the only control point to rotate the bridge is located *on* the bridge in the middle of the tracks.

So the only way for someone to move the bridge would be if they were standing on the bridge. (The theory being that if you were in danger of being hit by a train, you'd make DARN sure that there wouldn't be a train coming before you moved the bridge out of the way. Otherwise someone standing off the bridge with a control might not be as observant and could potentially cause an accident.)

Another little-known fact in this general area is that the maintenance and storage shed for Big Thunder is on the outside of the train tracks. Just after the Fronteirland station, there's a small section of coaster track that swings across the railroad track. (If you look on your next trip, you can see the coaster track that just stops in midair on either side of the train track)

-Rob
 
Monty

Monty

Brilliant...and Canadian
In the Parks
No
If you look using Google earth, you can see the pylon. It's blurry, but it's there.
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
Oh, and because they rarely ever have to move the bridge, it's quite possible that they let the grass and underbrush grow up a bit to the side of the bridge, and only go out and trim it down when it's time to move it (or if it's been too long and it's really getting out of control).

-Rob
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
If you scroll to the west so that you get to the next set of photos, you get this view:

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...0&scene=5219432&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

I believe this was late 2005. The riverboat had to go into drydock, but there was another boat in there already and the riverboat had to wait. They parked it (mostly) out of Guest view and did what work they could. (Only place you could see it was from the train trestle if you looked left down the canal)

The Caribbean Way bridge over the lock is a draw bridge.

On second viewing, this must have been January '06. I know the boat was in the canal when I was there in Dec '05, but if you shuffle over to Splash Mountain, it's dry and being worked on. (First time I've ever seen that backstage reservoir bone dry)

-Rob
 
Master Yoda

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
Rob562 said:
If you scroll to the west so that you get to the next set of photos, you get this view:

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...0&scene=5219432&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

I believe this was late 2005. The riverboat had to go into drydock, but there was another boat in there already and the riverboat had to wait. They parked it (mostly) out of Guest view and did what work they could. (Only place you could see it was from the train trestle if you looked left down the canal)

The Caribbean Way bridge over the lock is a draw bridge.

On second viewing, this must have been January '06. I know the boat was in the canal when I was there in Dec '05, but if you shuffle over to Splash Mountain, it's dry and being worked on. (First time I've ever seen that backstage reservoir bone dry)

-Rob
Click to expand...
Another interesting tidbit from that photo....Splash Mountain is undergoing its yearly refurb and is completely dry.
 

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