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Bridging plates.....


Jack

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Basically vehicle weight for bridge commanders to know how many vehicles to let onto pontoon bridges/ Bailey Bridges at any time so the jimmy drivers don't sink it *ahem*. Sometimes just the max vehicle weight... sometimes max vehicle weight plus max trailered load (looks like a fraction)...

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There was a booklet produced by the British Army during WW2 with all the Bridge plate numbers. It is basically the total weight of the vehicle plus maximum load in American tons (2000 lbs to a ton) and always rounded up. If the vehicle towed something like a field gun, then the weight of the total set-up was shown like a fraction - maximum weight on top.

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  • 1 year later...

Did you ever wonder just how they went about putting together and spanning an obstacle with a Bailey type bridge ?

 

Here is an animated clip of the newer form of the classic WWII bridge now called a Mabey Johnson bridge the main differences are I believe a steel panel deck versus wooden one and fewer stronger steel pieces used for the components , a very simular idea otherwise . Its spans 200' and is assembled and completed in 5:44 of course anything is possable in animation !

 

Something went wrong...

 

another clip

 

Something went wrong...

Edited by abn deuce
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Hi all.

 

Could some just remind/explain/teach me about the relevance of the yellow bridging plates/discs that you see on Jimmys etc etc.........

 

Cheers.

 

Jack.

 

 

 

Hi Jack, most war-time pic's I've seen of jimmys don't show bridge plates, exceptions being tankers (10 over 7 ) compressors (8) and

tippers (10 over 8 ).

 

Certainly post war when these vehicles were in service with other nations, France/Dutch etc they seemed to gain them..........well, from what I've seen via pics........

 

Paint it up as in British service and you could certainly put up a nice shiney yellow plate.........:cool2:

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From http://milifax2003.tripod.com/bridging_markings_part_1.html

 

"(a) Vehicles will be classified and marked according to the equivalent loads which they

impose on a bridge. The classes are in multiplicity of one ton, from one ton upwards.

Vehicles can cross any bridge bearing a classification number with is the same or

greater than its own classification. For example, a vehicle of class 12 can cross

safely any bridge marked 12, 18 or 24. It cannot cross a bridge marked 5 or 9"

 

Although being much lighter, Jeeps and other light vehicles could be marked as a class 5 vehicle as they can cross a class 5 bridge (the lowest bridge class rating during WW2).

 

H.

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AFAIK bridge classification is still active in BAOR (it was when I was there 77 - 85. For the sake of this post I use the present tense assuming has not changed).

 

Some amplifications:

 

Every SINGLE bridge and culvert in BAOR has a bridge classification, be it a Bailey Bridge, an Autobahn bridge over a deep valley or a six-inch culvert under the road.

 

The bridge (culvert etc: hereinafter, all are termed bridges) carries a classification plate just like the yellow plates on the vehicles. Many bridges have various classes depending on whether the vehicle to cross is wheeled or tracked.

 

On camouflaged vehicles, the yellow bridge classification background was officially repainted grey. Somebody in this forum told us that it was about 1978, which is earlier than I remember, but close enough - I blame the intervening years.

 

Typically, the bridge classification tends to be around (or nearly) twice the unladen weight of the vehicle.

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Although being much lighter, Jeeps and other light vehicles could be marked as a class 5 vehicle as they can cross a class 5 bridge (the lowest bridge class rating during WW2).
Here´s a nice example: one jeep has a "2" on it's bridge classification sign, as it weighs (less than) 2 tons, the other sports a "5" as it weighs no more than a class 5 bridge can carry!

 

Confusing subject, eh?

 

Hanno

rkingjeep.jpg

a177531-v6.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
Here´s a nice example: one jeep has a "2" on it's bridge classification sign, as it weighs (less than) 2 tons, the other sports a "5" as it weighs no more than a class 5 bridge can carry!

 

Confusing subject, eh?

 

Hanno

 

No, no you've got that wrong; the American jeep has the higher rating than the British one because everything American is bigger.:):)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Building bailey bridge with the same technique as the video

 

Bailey Bridge Bailey Bridge being launched across the Volturno River by US Army engineers after assembling its portable spans by using pin joints to link the steel beams, to make up this 80-ft., 21 ton capacity bridge which replaced a demolished bridge in 24hrs. Location: Italy Date taken: September 1944 Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White

 

baileybridge.jpg

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Jack, that's all tosh. They are fitted to jimmies like house numbers, each with a unique number, so you can always find your own man's truck in the long line up at shows etc.

 

That just made me laugh!

 

- not everyone is man enough to own a man's truck - nuff said.:coffee:

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Here´s a nice example: one jeep has a "2" on it's bridge classification sign, as it weighs (less than) 2 tons, the other sports a "5" as it weighs no more than a class 5 bridge can carry!

 

Confusing subject, eh?

 

Hanno

 

 

Absolutely - nothing is straight forward in WW11. With researching all of the products that we do it is amazing how many variables there are in something so simple and nondescript as a ration crate - the stencilling on them alone is minefield. IT A FLIIPPING SHIPPING CRATE THATS ALL :sweat:

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Building bailey bridge with the same technique as the video

 

 

 

ABN - there is a Bailey bridge not far from me (Bagber) that was put in place to take the heavy traffic on the build up to D-Day - it is still used to this day by 44 ton artics.

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