Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Flatbed railcar or similar for bridge?

I have several landowners who are in need of a flatbed rail car for a creek crossing. Someone also told me of shipping platforms that are used to ship large equipment into the ports. He said he used to have a source for them but not sure where to get them now. I was hoping to find a source in Alabama or nearby to help with shipping. Any help is appreciated.

I think you’ll have better luck finding a flatbed trailer (tractor trailer). It would be cheaper and easier to move too.

Much on both counts. Unless its something they will be driving big dozers or skidders and such across and need that much weight capacity.

I need something that will support log truck traffic and I don't think the flatbed tractor trailers are built to hold that much weight.

Google railcar scrap yards. We used to buy wrecked rail cars and used the side that was cut off for short crossings. Worked great. Used on tanker car up in Marshall Co close to the lake to cross a deep slough. Landowner paid for that one since he was going to leave it in after we were finished.

Going to be a expensive endeavor. I hope there is a lot of timber on the other side. A 85 ft flat car will weigh in the neighborhood of 200k. Will have to have crane and rigging crew to go where it is, pick it up for a over sized hauler to get under and haul. Then have crew come to unload it, and then set it.
Is there any other [possible way in other than that way? May be cheaper to give a neighboring landowner $10k for few months of access thru theirs and guarantee them a nice road when done.

!) Make sure you do not get an engineer familiar with bridge design and wheel loads to look at this.
2) Take lots of videos of the crossings for posting on Aldeer.

Seriously, don't risk lives jury rigging a bridge. I'm an engineer but I'm too far away to help you.

One is to gain access into 1,000 acre tract and would be used as a permanent bridge/crossing for the future.

soalaturkeys,
We would certainly have an engineer look at everything before investing this type of money but based on my research some of those railcars were rated to hold 70 tons. A fully loaded log truck is much less. Help me find a more economical way to cross a large perennial creek that usually carries too much water to ford and is way too deep of banks to use culverts. It's not an easy fix. This is a place where old county bridges are washed out and will never be replaced.

A friend in Mississippi bought a couple sections of preformed concrete like is used in parking decks. I think they were 45' long. Loaded on a low boy and brought to the creek and they used a track hoe to drag it down into the creek and then slowly lift it onto the other side.

Good deal. I'm not saying that the railcar won't work or hold the load, just be cautious. Instead of craning in a monster like a flatbed railcar, and assuming the adjacent land owner idea is out, I would look for a genuine engineer with experience in pontoon bridges. A series of tanks and a bed capable of handling the log truck would be a lot cheaper than that, I think...the military did/does it all the time.

I've got a client in Mississippi who needed a 90 footer....he found one somewhere in Texas and had it shipped to Ms. It was expensive as all get out but railcars are getting rare due to scrap prices. There is an outfit between Butler and Meridian that may have them....45's and 55's maybe.

I know where one is and it use to be used as a log road bridge in the early 80's. You can drive a truck right to it, but the dang thing is extremely heavy, it would take a couple of large machines to load it and you would have to have all kinds of permits to haul it. Give a rough price they would be willing to pay for it and I'll ask the owner if he wants to sell it. It is about 35 miles south of Samson.
I would have to go measure it to let you know the exact length.
I would build a rock crossing.

I think there is (or used to be) a scrap yard in Albertville that used to have old scrapped railcars.. Got a friend who has one across a creek in Cherokee Co near Piedmont. they have hauled hundreds of loads of timber across it.

got a flatbed trailer across a creek that has been in place for 25 years. just re floor it from time to time and use a banding machines so the boards don't float away when it floods. drive atv utvs across it regularly. used an excavator to pull it in place and flip across the creek.

Progress Rail Services

We have a couple of RR car bridges and some smaller truck bed bridges. Longest in place is 90' I think. Was set in place with an excavator and a D6 I believe. It sits on 4' thick.concrete pads. Another one we formed the headwalls and poured them in place but it's smaller.

Still have a 110 footer waiting on placement but don't know if it'll get used or not. It's been sitting there for 5+ years.

Can you use some very large culvert pipes or tanks with rip-rap and then concrete on top? I know where one like this is on the Paint Rock River, works very well, been there for years . When the river is really high , it just flows over the top.

Prefab double t beam would likely be a lot cheaper. How far do you need to span? Propety location?

I think 2Dogs got this right.

I have not been around many creek beds that were deep enough I could not use some combination of culverts and digging to make this work. All the rest of them I went around somewhere else.

It gets down to are you talking about a creek or a river and a ditch or a gorge? Bridges big enough to drive heavy equipment across are not economical. Little ones to get a 4-wheeler or maybe even a truck or small tractor across are a different story. When you start talking about a rail car you are talking serious money. I can dig 1/2 way to china and as wide as the Mississippi river for what that cost. That would buy several huge concrete culverts and a lot of rock.

If it is 40 ft deep build a new road somewhere else.

We have an old rail car bridge at our place and it's had a lot of log trucks haul out of it,been there a long time too