Outstanding video!

Beautiful looking bridge. Great to see MCRM re-establish their collection to the mainline.

Really great.

Now, not trying to be mean. Should the bridge have a coat of paint?

It is standard practice to not paint steel railroad bridges. Look at the new bridge that have been constructed on the freight railroads. The grade of steel that it is made of will form a layer of rust. Then that layer will protect the remaining steel from heavy corrosion.

Ed

I had no clue this bridge replacement was in the works, I recall a few years ago when MCRM was disposing of equipment the lack of rail access came up, I thought it was an oos bridge on the UP that was the problem, and that UP had no financial interest in restoring it.

Wow. That doesn't sound right to me. It is standard practice to not paint bridges fabricated from CorTen steel, as that is supposed to form a weather resistant oxide layer, although here in Illinois I see most CorTen highway bridges painted a dark purple oxide color for the first ten feet out from the abutments because otherwise the rainwater runoff stains the concrete with rust streaks that look like hell.

And, I will admit that the new approach spans on the Baraboo River bridge may well be CorTen; its hard to tell. But, as far as I know the main span is still the original low carbon steelwork, and should be painted. Maybe they'll get to it next year.

My guess is that the problem is the fact it’s an aerial structure over water. That means fall protection systems as well as containment during prep and painting. If it’s lead paint, heaven help you, you probably need “space suits” to work on it, with air supply etc. Obviously none of that comes cheap, and most volunteers likely don’t have the training needed.

Only a guess mind you, but a possible scenario.

Great news.

I rode a train on Fathers Day last year and lamented at the isolation and short run.

This changes a everything. Look forward to riding 1385 maybe some day across Wisconsin.
Those 63" drivers might get to gallop yet.

For 1385 to "Gallop" MCRM is going to have to go a long, long way towards proving that they know how to operate and maintain a steam loco. After 18 years, there is virtually no organizational memory left to serve as the basis of a believable steam program. A very serious commitment and lots of work will be required to convince the Wisconsin & Southern that Mid-Continent knows what it's doing.

Mid-Continent recently tore our and replaced another bridge on their line, at Seeley Creek.
This was a quick project from a construction perspective, from December of Last year to May of this year. First train video can be seen here:
https://youtu.be/XdtVRMU983M

Should note shortly after the brudge was finished....a huge flood came though, Just below the Record flood of 2008. The bridge held up just fine....needing only replace washed out ballast on the approaches.