Amazing! This will mess up schedules for both CN and CP for awhile I would guess.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/06/30/bc-railway-bridge-fire.html
WOW! I wonder if the heat will damage the structure.
…What a strange situation. What in the world would cause ties to catch on fire. Possible brake dragging…and a piece of it falling on the creosote coated ties…??
One might hope most of the heat would be going up away from the steel structure…Possible wind currents would help that situation by moving the heat away…
But just guessing on my part…
Last summer the C&TS RR Lobato Trestle ties and walkway burned. That is a steel bridge, and there was a lot of speculation about how the fire may or may not have affected the steel. When the detail photographs were posted, I think most were surprised at how much the steel had been damaged. All of the span box girders had to be replaced.
Remember the Poughkeepsie River bridge was damaged beyound RR use but is still used as a predestrian bridge.
So just to put this into perspective. This is CN’s mainline through BC. The other bridge in the picture is CP’s mainline through BC. Both in the Fraser Canyon. CP and CN have been running each others trains from the west end of Kamloops Lake to Vancouver on each line, CN taking all the west bounds and CP the east bounds. So losing this bridge will cause significant bottle necks for each. CN does have the option of running through Prince George on the ex-BC Rail line to North Vancouver, but that will add time and its own congestion issues. This could also impact VIA and the Rocky Mountaineer schedules.
I am guessing just by looking at that picture that the damage to the upper steel part of the structure will be extensive, and will take awhile to assess and repair. Creosoted timbers burn hot, and long. I hope I am wrong on this tho.
Depends on a lot of the details, including the metallurgy of those upper members, and how hot they get. Someplace I read that up to 1,500 deg. F isn’t a problem for steel as long as it hasn’t been stretched or buckled by the heat.
According to CN’s website repairs have begun and should be back in service in 48 hrs.
That would be amazing!
Barry Williams Mission BC
Link to CN’s “State of the Railway” webpage - look for the notification there dated July 01, 2011 for “SOUTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA”:
http://www.cn.ca/en/customer-service-railway-status.shtml
It says that:
“Repair work has begun, and is expected to be completed within approximately 48 hours. In the interim, we are detouring all affected traffic over the CP portion of the co-production line. While some delays may be expected for traffic circulating between Kamloops, BC, and Chilliwack, BC, to date there has been no interruption to service in the area.”
- Paul North.
When total line blockage threatens, it is amazing what the carriers can do to restore operations in a short amount of time.
Freight back running as of approximately 3.00pm PST Saturday 2 July. Not too busy westbound CN through Chilliwack. Lots of SRY transfer freight sitting at Chilliwack Interchange. The CP must have covered traffic well both ways during the bridge outage.
Charlie
Chilliwack, BC
They worked on it day and night and got it back in service (slow speed) after only three days. They put short pre-assembled sections of rail and ties and bolted the rails together as they worked from both ends. They used some ties that were stored nearby. I overheard the bridge gang forman telling the dispatcher the ties will be removed soon and replaced with another set of specially designed ties. The new ties will be tapered to provide superelevation for the curve at east end of bridge.