Union Pacific Freight Train blown from bridge in New Mexico.

I had heard about that, and ment to look it up, but while chasing my Great-Granddaughter, I forgot about it. Thanks.

I had to look it up. I had just saw a story about one in Baltimore too!

What is done when this happens? How are the freight cars gotten out of the ravine? Is this due to climate change?

Climate change seems to be the explanation for many things now days

My shoestring broke yesterday and the first I thought of was.... 

aussteve posted:

Climate change seems to be the explanation for many things now days

My shoestring broke yesterday and the first I thought of was.... 

LOL.  There have been trains blown off the big trestles in North Dakota too.  The winds have always been very powerful on the Northern Plains.  The wind is funneled down the valleys the trestle cross too.

Kent in SD

Nothing to see here, move along

Google "train blown off bridge photo" and you will see the results of many such accidents.  Also includes a video of box cars being blown right off a trestle on to a highway and bridge failures. 

Robert K posted:

What is done when this happens? How are the freight cars gotten out of the ravine? Is this due to climate change?

I guess you do what you always do any other time a big mess happens.  You get out the broom and dustpan, and clean the mess up. 

Out here in God's country where I live, if you don't like the climate, just wait for 5 minutes - it'll change. 

And that's one of the main reasons I like model railroading so much - I can do it year 'round in the comfort of my own basement, without worrying about the weather outside. 

Brandy posted:

There were 26+ cars blown off the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge, just south of Logan New Mexico Wednesday....No injuries or fatalities reported....

The Freight Cars did drop over 120+ feet down into a ravine immediately below the bridge. The railroad also reported that there was major structural damage done to the bridge...….!...This was due to the Ultra High winds that was from the storms this past week.... 

It was a double-stack unit train.  A friend of mine, who works in the railroading industry, said this is why you don't run double-stacks in high winds.  If they had run single stacks, they would have been fine.

The MILW had a few signals along the NW extension where thete were high winds.  If the speed of the winds were too high, the signal would turn red.

The winds blows through those canyons very hard and fast at times, it is not a good place to be in those canyons when mother nature gets a sneeze, anywhere in the southwest for that manner.

Apparently very little merchandise strewn about.  If many empties then much less weight to resist blow over.  Perhaps.

Wonder what kind of stress/damage to the bridge.

Note a long depression in the left rail about 100' off of the bridge abutment.

This was a Rock Island bridge.  

As you can see, it is not difficult to get equipment in to remove the wrecked containers and well cars.  I have gone there for photos twice but both times was defeated by maintenance projects causing several-hour windows without any trains.    Oh, well . . .

Number 90 posted:

This was a Rock Island bridge.  

As you can see, it is not difficult to get equipment in to remove the wrecked containers and well cars.  I have gone there for photos twice but both times was defeated by maintenance projects causing several-hour windows without any trains.    Oh, well . . .

Tom, I guess that's the bridge crossing the Canadian River there near Logan, isn't it? Incidentally, it looks like Hwy 54 from Tucumcari to Dalhart must be a great road to chase trains, with the track running parallel for such a long distance. At one time the Rock Island also had a line going west from Amarillo to Tucumcari along I-40, didn't it?

I wonder if any of those containers were bound for Lionel. Would explain some of the quality problems folks have complained about on this forum. (;🚂🚞🚊😱

breezinup posted:

Number 90 posted:

This was a Rock Island bridge.  

As you can see, it is not difficult to get equipment in to remove the wrecked containers and well cars.  I have gone there for photos twice but both times was defeated by maintenance projects causing several-hour windows without any trains.    Oh, well . . .

Tom, I guess that's the bridge crossing the Canadian River there near Logan, isn't it? Incidentally, it looks like Hwy 54 from Tucumcari to Dalhart must be a great road to chase trains, with the track running parallel for such a long distance. At one time the Rock Island also had a line going west from Amarillo to Tucumcari along I-40, didn't it?

Breezinup, you get an A in geography.

Yes, that's the Canadian River bridge at Logan, NM, easy to photograph from either side.  You might think that US Highway 54 is a great train chasing road, and it is, in Kansas, Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle.  It's all UPRR now, but I always remember the legacy ownership.  

If you leave Wichita, KS, heading west, you'll pick up the former Rock Island and it will stay right beside you through Greensburg, Liberal, Dalhart, all the way into Tucumcari, NM.  The monumental "Samson of the Cimmaron" bridge is right next to the highway in Kansas, and can easily be photographed.  Highway speed limits are not fast going through towns, but the line is usually pretty busy if something outruns you, and it's single track, so there are meets.  West of Tucumcari, it's out on the western high plains, with former Rock Island ownership and Southern Pacific operation to Santa Rosa, parallel to I-40/US 54, with gently rolling landscape, few trees and very good photo ops.  The bridges here are all Rock Island style because of the unusual ownership/operation agreement that existed.  I marched in the 30th Annual Memorial Bataan Death March last Sunday and drove Highway 54 from Alamogordo to Santa Rosa on my way home last Monday.  The railroad is visible from, but not next to, the highway over most of this stretch, which was owned and operated by Southern Pacific.

At Tucumcari, Rock Island had a line eastward toward Memphis.  It passed through Amarillo, western Oklahoma (Sayre, Elk City, Weatherford), Oklahoma City, eastern Oklahoma, and then at Little Rock, AR, was jointly operated to Memphis with the former Missouri Pacific.  It was mostly non-block railroading except for a stretch from El Reno to Oklahoma City and on the joint portion.  The railroad is gone -- rail, ties, ballast, everything except a few bridges that were too expensive to pick up for scrap -- from Tucumcari, NM to Sayre, OK.  Driving I-40 between Vega and Tucumcari, you can see bridges over on the ranches to the south, and the track was next to the highway most of the way from Vega to Sayre. The edge of the caprock is visible south of the Rock Island right of way and the buttes would have been a great backdrop for photos before 1980, when the Rock Island shut down operations there.