http://www.arizonarails.com/images/Travel_by_Train.pdf
This is an 8 page PDF — need Acrobat Reader
[banghead] [censored] [banghead] [#oops]
Whoa! Now that’s a HOT BOX!!! I bet that tressel ignited in a heartbeat. i hope that wasn’t a mainline track!
You hope wrong.
Oh My!
Marshmellows?
Question - why would a railroad have a mainline over a wooden trestle in dry country like that? Isn’t that just asking for trouble?
Saw a picture of that event a while back, but not the whole series. Aside from the burning trestle, the account did say it was a loaded coal train, which means that not only did the trestle burn, but probably the coal as well.
Even though the local fire laddies were on scene, you can probably see all of the water they had with them, which doesn’t amount to much when you have a vertical lumberyard burning (soaked in creosote to boot), on top of which sit a bunch of very heavy railroad cars. Not much they could do.
I’d guess the RR was planning to eventually replace the wood with something a bit more durable. Now they have to (and probably have).
Wow.
At least nobody was hurt.
Whoa Dude!
[:-^][:-^] So Bob, got the number to that truck driving school. I think we’re gonna need it.
Another good reason to always carry a camera.
oops! indeed…
Since the Mudchicken is apparently away from his computer, I’ll take a stab at it:
The reason for the bridge over the dry area is simple: the area is undoubtedly prone to flash flooding, beyond that which a simple fill and culvert(s) could handle.
The reason for the treated wood is also simple: it was the cheapest, most reasonable material with which to build such a structure at the time it was built. No reason to replace it until such time as it wore out (or could not meet demands of heavier loads), or, as in this case, was “taken out”.
I remember seeing these pictures a couple of years ago, so the disaster is at least that old. The replacement was probably prefab concrete beams on steel pilings, which seems to be the modern-day equivalent of old wooden trestles.
Okay, that is totally amzing! I guess that just goes to show how important it is to have an alert crew. It’s too bad because if the train had stopped just 7 or 8 cars farther down the tracks, the train would have been off of the bridge.
Willy
1 word…wow.
It looks tome like they had already set the bridge on fire before they stopped.
Hope that dosn’t happen to me…of course all the bridges here are steel…whew. There was nothing that the fire department could do at that point!!!
A steel bridge can still burn. Some years back, a double track plate girder bridge over a river here burned…that is, the ties burned. A good wind helped it to cross the bridge and burned every tie on it. A freight train flying up on it would be in pretty serious trouble, but as it was near a yard, we knew about it quickly. Things were totally fouled up for several days until it was re-tied. [The big delay was shipping in the needed ties, as bridge ties aren’t normally stockpiled nearby…]
GANGWAY, FIRE IN THE HOLE!!! I wonder how many steamers cought trestles on fire when they shook the grates.
Sharon Springs, Ks …such a wunnerful place on the UPRR KP line between LImon CO and Salina, KS …16 miles east of the Colorado line…We laid out a siding at McAllaster, KS for UP 20 miles east of there in 2000. This line went from abandonment candidate to relief valve for the UP transcon following the SP merger. This line is handling a lot of Moffat Tunnel thru trains now and is being heavilly upgraded.
I’ll take a picture of the replacement bridge the next time east that way if somebody will post it. Been to a few wienie roasts and the resulting panel parties myself…They probably got 50-60 years out of that old wooden structure, so it just got replaced a few years ahead of schedule. Most large bridges out here are wood.
Mud Phoenix[angel][angel][angel]
back in Denver
hum… I wonder why the fire department there didn’t spray water on the fire lines…
it would have saved thousands of dollars for UP…
unless, well… forget it…
Mudchicken - email me.
Does anyone know when this happened? I got a UP service bulletin about 2 weeks ago about a coal train taking down a bridge at Soldier Creek KS. Would this be the same one?