UP derailment and bridge collapse in Chicago northern suburbs on July 4.

Good thing nobody was hurt.  That is right where they had a derailment a few years back asmentioned in the article.  I grew up right by there and that bridge looked ancient then...have to wait and see what caused things to happen.

Here is a pic of the bridge before the accident.

Steve

Just wonder if a sun/heat kink happened right at the bridge and the loaded coal gons derailed, went over the side, and took the rebuilt bridge down.

"Here is a pic of the bridge before the accident."

Wow! Look at all that cracked and crumbling concrete on those abutments.Typical of lots of freeze/thaws.Appears that no repairs had been made when this was taken.I wonder when the last time their civil engineers looked at this. 

Anyone have photos after the failure?

Did the L.....(wait for it).....ocomotives go into the cut or did the bridge collapse after they passed?

Locomotives NOT involved. The "derailment" was back in the train.

Wasn't but maybe 5-6 years ago the 3985 went across the same bridge?

Here's a video showing the bridge beams laying on the ground.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRihxqOLIsA

Is there any updates to this?  I just saw on the Baltimore Sun that there was a fatality.  Apparently there was a car under the bridge, and there is a body inside.  

Here is a sad update from the Chicago Tribune:http://www.chicagotribune.com/...0705,0,4983947.story

New update just said on the news that there are 2 deceased that were inside the car. I guess they started cleaning up today and the car was completely concealed underneath a coal load.

Hmm I wonder if the car crashed into one of the sides of the overpass supports causing it to collapse. What are the odds that it would have failed just as a car happened to be passing under.

Very sad. This is the Trib update of about 10 minutes ago:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/...0705,0,4983947.story

Looks like a black sportscar was pulled out, possibly a mustang. My bet is that the driver lost control and struck a support.

Now why would you make THAT assumption?

It is MUCH more logical to think that a heat kink in the rails, at the area where the track transitions over the bridge, caused the derailment, which brought the whole bridge down on top of the car.

Yeah with the high temps we have had here, I think Hotwater is on the money...the cars just derailed at the worst possible spot.  And sadly that vehicle was just there when it happened.

Well, let's let the RR and federal "CSI's" deal with this!

The two victims in the crushed car have been identified:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/...0706,0,5846788.story

Sorry your right Hotwater there's no way that the accident could have been caused by the car. I don't even know why I comment on these things with your superior knowledge present.

As a side note, that C&NW line was built in 1911 and suspect the bridge dates back to that time. In other words, an old bridge. But, even if a bridge were built last week, don't think any bridge could have survived about 2000 tons of careening freight cars and coal landing on it. Just wonder how many millions/billions of tons had rolled over it up to this accident?

       Additionally, our friends from the legal community have already filed a suit against the Union Pacific. Believe I saw a couple of lawyers frantically digging through the mountain of coal, with their hands.

The victim's law firm(that he was the main partner in along with his son)  has, of course filed a wrongful death suit against UPRR claiming neglegence/ failure to maintain trackage/etc.  This could get ugly-- 

it's been many years since I lived in that general area.  Are we talking about the C&NW "New line" that parallel's the old CNS&M ROW and Hiway 41?  Just trying to picture in my mind where the accident occurred.  Is the intersecting road north of the end of the Edens Expy, or south?

Paul Fischer

A very good idea, plus there are also many more knowledgable railroad guys on here, besides me. 

I am assuming.......assuming........it is the underpass which Willow Road traverses. It would be near the Milwaukee Road  cutoff at Techny. And, yes, believe this is a component of the C&NW "new line".

Paul it is at the point the Milw Road Split off of the Joint Line and got onto the C&M Sub

Wow!-2 people crushed in a car under a pile of coal from derailed cars.  That's nuts.  What a coincidence and a tragedy.

Very typical of the infrastructure on thousands of bridges and overpasses in our country that carry our goods. There never seem's to be any funds available to replace or repair things like this, but there's always money available to build unneeded new highways. Who's to  blame for this situation? With Federal and state inspectors being laid off and their jobs being eliminated, this won't be the last of these.

At least this was only coal. This train could have been loaded with hazardous chemicals. No wonder residents of areas like these hate trains. This could have been a h**l of a lot worse. When the attorneys and the courts get this straightened out, if ever, a lot of money is going to change hands.

That is right where they had a derailment a few years back as mentioned in the article

2009 video. Looks like the same place?

http://youtu.be/E6xad9p_zPw

Sadly folks, there are a lot more bridges like this in the Chicago area!  The one that comes to mind, is the one that carries the old Soo Line (now CN), and the CP (ex Milw) over Northwest Highway not far from DesPlaines.  I do not know if this one has been replaced by the CN or CP, but years back, it was bad!  Regarding the 2 fatalities in that car this past Wednesday, it probably happened so fast, they didn't know what hit them, and hopefully did not suffer.   But I'm just speculating....   Never the less, this will likely come out as a "being in the wrong place, at the wrong time" scenario for the two car occupants, but as had been said, the legal community will have a field day with this one.

Funny you should say that Nelson, I drive underneath one everyday going back and forth to work, its also a UP bridge.

Think so? I bet UP just cuts the son of the victims a big fat check (and whoeverelse is necessary) and washes their hands of it. They've already got the coal cleaned up and track fixed and trains running like nothing ever happened. How can there be an "investigation" the UP already shoved the track and bridge off to the side? It might be kind of tough to figure out what the problem was with the rail after a D8 pushed everything into a pile.

So the victims had barely reached room temperature, yet the deceased man's law firm partners were able to compose themselves from their grief long enough to immediately file a wrongful death lawsuit. How courageous.

Yes it is the same place as the 2009 accident.  And yes there are lots of bridges in the area, heck all over really that are old and in poor condition.  It is not something that is isolated to this bridge alone. 

Northbrook, IL is my hometown. As some of you already know this UP line used to be Chicago & Northwestern and it's an old route. Less than a mile up the track is this concrete arch bridge that crosses Techny Rd., as you can see it dates back about 100 years to the building of the line, just like the abutments of the Shermer Rd. bridge where the derailment occurred.

I grew up in Glenview and I remember passing under those bridges may times, they looked like that then.

The press conference with the lawyers for the family was televised locally. The deceased gentleman was the first boss of one of them. Their office is down the hall from the deceased's office. On Thursday, they secured a temporary restraining order that halted work at the site for 36 hours, that gave their "experts" time to go over the site to determine the cause of the accident. Of course, by the time the TRO was granted, UP already had been working on the site for a number of hours, including the removal of the car with the bodies. They also had installed a shoo-fly, and trains were running again. Good luck on determining the cause in that amount of time and that amount of post-accident work having been done. (By the way, once again I have to admire both the first responders and UP workers. High temperatures here since the 4th have been 101 and 102, if not higher.)

FARMER BILL, your video is of the prior accident at this location. Thanks for posting it.

There is one thing I have about this.  The family has a right to get legal help.  I can see the TRO.  But I do think comments to the press by the lawyers should NOT be allowed.  Why?  Because it could compromise a future jury pool.  Stuff like that gives the legal profession a very bad unprofessional eye.

Here's an interesting post picked up on Craigs List (questionable source, but this sounds pretty believable):

years ago Union Pacific wanted to replace that viaduct and told residents that it would take 6 months to finish. The residents were up in arms about it and kept *****ing and moaning to their city halls about how they would be inconvenienced with that main road being closed for that long. City Hall agreed and Union Pacific had it's hands tied and were told to make fixes to the viaduct without closing the road down. The lawyers for that poor family that got crushed by thousands of tons should be asking Northbrook and Glenview why they did not allow Union Pacific to replace the viaduct? Every single resident of those two towns should also be held accountable for the couples death. I hate selfish snobs from those two towns even more after this.

Mark, I find that Craig's List comment a little hard to believe. If Shermer Rd. were closed for bridge repairs anybody wanting to get to Glenview from Northbrook only has to drive west to Pfingsten Rd. (maybe 2 minutes extra). But you're right about the snobbery, my hometown (Northbrook) has gone very "upscale" in the past 40-50 years, that goes double for Glenview, LOL.