Originally Posted by
Allan Speers
It reminds me of a "true" story I once read: ("true" in the Coen Brothers sense of the word.
)
Some guy rented a large box truck to haul lumber home from the mill. On the way home he passed under an overhead train tressle, and not being an experienced trucker, slammed the top of the truck into the overpass, getting hopelessly stuck.
I saw a similar incident, when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Little town of Smiths Falls, near Old Sly's Lock, there was a rail overpass. We were playing in the field next to the locks and a truck load of logs came along. It was a big truck, and the wood was piled high. We stopped and watched it go by, and as it headed for the overpass my friend asked if it was gonna fit. Nope. There was a huge BANG, the chains snapped, logs spilled off the truck, and the rail bridge jumped. Gravel from the bridge rained down. The truck was not stuck, but the rail bridge was unusable until they made some repairs to it. Quite exciting to watch all the activity on what was otherwise just another day.
As for the plane, you could just make shorter abutments. There is probably enough there to hold the iron. And if it turns out that the short abutments don't work, pare them off and install a cross-pin later on.
Darrell
Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and Occasional Tool User