Pictures from Sellersville, PA on 02/21/2004

Pictures from Sellersville, PA on 02/21/2004   This page consists of pictures of the ex-Reading Railroad bridge over the East Branch of the Perkiomen Creek in Sellersville, PA. The railroad tracks are currently owned by SEPTA and operated by the East Penn Railway (EPRY). This bridge was built in 1917 by the North Penn Railroad, and there is an adjacent fill on the North side which continues all of the way to the Sellersville station. Somebody moved a lot of dirt for that.

  The bridge appears to be constructed from reinforced concrete, but it has seen better days. There is serious spalling occuring all over the bridge, and arches six and seven (as counted from the North end) have large chunks of concrete that have fallen. I am not a structural engineer, thus I have no idea if these defects actually present a structural weakness to the bridge, but they don't give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. There are way too many trees growing close to the bridge, and you can see that the roots have started to harm the bridge in the sixth arch. EPRY trimmed the tops of the trees last year, but that doesn't do much to stop root damage. Gut instinct tells me that this would be a very expensive bridge to replace.


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arch_1.jpg
The first arch (as numbered from the North). The build date of 1917 is cast in this arch.
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arch_2.jpg
Here's the second arch, with a part of the sun screwing up the picture.
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arch_3.jpg
Here's the third arch.
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arch_4.jpg
The fourth arch. The ice is remains of a funky "ice flood" that happened over two weeks ago.
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arch_5.jpg
Inside of the fifth arch. More huge chunks of ice.
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arch_6.jpg
Inside the sixth arch. The sixth and seventh arches have water flowing through them. The North side arch wall in the sixth column has its footing showing.
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arch_7_and_south_east_wing_wall.jpg
Here's arch seven and the southeast wing wall. Notice that the wing walls on the south side are concreted over top of the stone, while the north sides are not.
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arch_7_west_side.jpg
Looking up at the seventh arch from the west side of the bridge.
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column_between_6_and_7_east_side.jpg
Here's the column in between the sixth and seventh arches on the east side. We're missing a bit of concrete here.
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column_between_6_and_7_west_side.jpg
Here's the west side of the column in between arches six and seven. Thank goodness for re-rod. That just doesn't look too good.
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east_side.jpg
Approaching the bridge from the East side. Here's the column in between the sixth and seventh arches on the east side. We're missing a bit of concrete here.
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inside_arch_6.jpg
The North side arch wall in the sixth column has its footing showing.
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inside_arch_6_again.jpg
Another shot of the north side of the sixth arch wall. Those stones appear to be part of the footing. I wonder if that long wood beam is from the bridge construction? I know it would be really old, but why else would it be there?
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inside_arch_6_roof.jpg
The south wall of arch six. Re-rod is showing and it appears that the drain pipe assembly that was previously is this wall has totally rotted off, along with the concrete around it.
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looking_south.jpg
Looking South down the right of way. The track on the left is the active one.
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new_handrails.jpg
Notice the new handrails that the EPRY installed last year. I hope that this low ballast isn't because it falling through the drain system. Looking at the bottom of arch seven, it looks like the drain pipe there has fallen off with the surrounding concrete.
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new_handrails_2.jpg
Here's a better look at the handrails on the southeast side. You can see the remains of a former Reading Company handrail stanchion, and how much farther out they were mounted.
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north_east_wing_wall.jpg
The stone retaining wall on the northeast side.
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northeast_top.jpg
A shot from the top, northeast side of the bridge.
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northwest_side.jpg
A shot of arches three through seven from the west side.
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northwest_top.jpg
A shot of the top, northwest side of the bridge.
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southeast_top.jpg
Here's blurry shot from the top, southeast side of the bridge.
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southwest_side.jpg
After walking over ice, through mud, I got a shot of the west side of arches six and seven.
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southwest_top.jpg
Here's a shot from the top, southwest side of the bridge. You can see some of the ice remaining on the ground.
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Index created on Sun Feb 22 01:55:55 2004.
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