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Storm blows train off Huey P. Long bridge in New Orleans
I wonder how the “Sunset Limited” was affected. The tracks had to be cleared and repaired of any damage.
I suspect there was no or minimal track damage at the point of derailment; the double-stacked containers almost certainly were mty.
An America’s cup yacht likely has more effective sails than the broadsides of a couple of 40’ boxes. The, my guess is they just tipped over…
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I wouldn’t assume there was “minimal track damage”. When the last few cars of a CP train blew over on the St. Lawrence bridge in Montreal a few years ago, it tore up the tracks pretty badly. Since then, CP has installed a device to measure wind speed on the bridge. I wonder if the bridge in Louisiana had such a device.
The same thing happened on Rockville Bridge near Harrisburg, Pa. a few years ago. Now when the wind speed is above a certain level there needs to be a heavy train such as a coal train, to serve as “windbreak” on the bridge.
@Paul: As I write this, Amtrak still hasn’t made it here to Houston yet. It suffered a huge delay trying to get across, and has been falling behind ever since, according to the recorded statuses.
The weather forcast was for showers and possible thunder storms. Then everything blew up. Wind gusts went from 25 to 30 MPH to 70 plus MPH. Possible F-1 Tornado in Kenner area near bridge. With speed restrictions on bridge, it takes a while for trains to clear bridge when they are already on it.
Good thing it didn’t happen in the middle section of the bridge where the parallel roadways are located. The rail section is about 6 times as long as the road/rail section, due to the grade restrictions for the trains. That would’ve really screwed up road traffic for a while.
A reporter might want to look into whether or not NOPB or UP contracts for weather forecasting. BNSF dispatchers will tell crews to tie down their trains if there are high wind warnings for where they are. Seems like that storm was well forecast and you’d think a railroad might want to take weather into account when they operate trains on such a high structure.
It’s high time that the Huey P. Long Bridge be demolished and a newer and more safer structure be built to replace it. This train was probably running with an empty set of containers over the bridge during the storm. I drive a n 18-wheeler and strong storms as this one are capable of blowing an empty trailer off to the side and I can feel it. The HLP bridge has extremely narrow highway lanes and is heavily laden with rust. The roadway is obsolete for today’s traffic, and it’s only a matter of time before it collapses. Louisiana is paying the price for it being cheap about maintaining the infrastructure of their roads and bridges. They should have cancelled the I-49 extension to Arkanasas and replaced the HLP bridge instead.