Western Railroad Discussion > More Needles Sub Photos

Sent to me by a friend at BNSF:

1. Very bad centering of the bridge over the wash.

2. Ohh, that's why the abutment is over there.

3. That's probably not going to help the super elevation on this curve.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/13 09:47 by Railfool03.

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Some more:

1. Yer gonna need a bigger bridge...

2. Never good when trees are being washed over your handrails.

3. Hey fellas, move the bridge this way about 100 feet!

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Last group:

1. Geez, the maintenance on the Needles Sub has really gone downhill.

2. Extremely rare water moc-a-rattler. Yikes.

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Quite a series of photos. Amazing, the power of water!

~RGDave

Look like a Western Diamondback.

That's why I shoot the Needles Sub in late winter - so I don't have worry much about those critters.

>
> 2. Extremely rare water moc-a-rattler. Yikes.

The #2 picture answers all the questions about the washout. The abutment was simply washed away hence the track was left hanging in the air. Appreciate the greater perspective as the #1 closely cropped shot doesn't give the whole story. Appreciate your time and effort taking pictures.

Josiah

Yes, the wider shot instantly shows what happened, makes the case for channelizing the upstream wash, lengthening the trestle.

That welded rail is mega-strong!

It irritates me no end when TV news vids don't begin with overall cover shots of an incident when possible, then focus on details, different views, interviews.

Abqfoamer Wrote:
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> That welded rail is mega-strong!

While the strength of the suspended track is a factor, the bridge abutment and ground are providing most of the support. The well cars are bottomed out.

Is there any similarity to this in past storms?

I don't know this area very well, other regions can compare to something that happened during the 'the big storm of 19xx' (although they often say the winter of 1963/64). It's pretty classic high desert with all sorts of obvious long term erosion by wind and water.

Flood waters resist most efforts at control. The force can undo even the best designs.

From BNSF:

To: All Impacted Customers
08/27/2013

Final Report: Washout near Ibis, California

As mentioned in a Service Advisory issued on August 26, 2013, BNSF reported there was a
track washout on a 2.6 mile segment of track near Ibis, California. This location is approximately
14 miles West of Needles, California.

The track was returned to service at 6:15 a.m. Central Time on Tuesday, August 27, 2013.

Customers may experience delays of 24 to 36 hours on shipments moving through this
corridor. We will continue to provide you with additional information as it becomes available.

http://domino.bnsf.com/website/updates.nsf/updates-service-consumer/8256F2C725BEE2BF86257BD400528A62?Open

What amazes me is the power units made it over this flaw without incident...I wonder if this was actually happening as the train(s) crossed? Seems to say a lot for hi strength welded rail.

Railfool03 Wrote:
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> 1. Very bad centering of the bridge over the
> wash.

From a review pre-washout aerial photos, the bridge was perfectly centered over the wash. It also had massive rock armored banks with large rip-rap upstream for a couple hundred feet. It appears the wash is contained to a single channel when it passes under I-40 just south of the railroad and then spreads out into three channels when it reaches the railroad. It appears that instead of the water spreading out over all three channels, all the water took the one channel under Bridge 587.0, which was simply not designed for that volume of water...but I imagine is soon will be.

BNSF6400 Wrote:
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> Railfool03 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > 1. Very bad centering of the bridge over the
> > wash.
>
> From a review pre-washout aerial photos, the
> bridge was perfectly centered over the wash. It
> also had massive rock armored banks with large
> rip-rap upstream for a couple hundred feet. It
> appears the wash is contained to a single channel
> when it passes under I-40 just south of the
> railroad and then spreads out into three channels
> when it reaches the railroad. It appears that
> instead of the water spreading out over all three
> channels, all the water took the one channel under
> Bridge 587.0, which was simply not designed for
> that volume of water...but I imagine is soon will
> be.

Is this the location of the major washout?

34.887768°N, -114.736802°W

Cumbresfan Wrote:
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> Is this the location of the major washout?
>
> 34.887768°N, -114.736802°W

Yes, that is the bridge.

Interesting pics!!! Thanks for sharing.

How many times has the bnsf transcon been closed this year? At least two blow-overs and this washout that I can think of.

TCnR Wrote:
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> Is there any similarity to this in past storms?
>
> I don't know this area very well, other regions
> can compare to something that happened during the
> 'the big storm of 19xx' (although they often say
> the winter of 1963/64). It's pretty classic high
> desert with all sorts of obvious long term erosion
> by wind and water.

Remember that these are isolated thunder cells. Not like in the east where you can have a line of them running for hundreds of miles. Since most of the desert in this part of California is uninhabited, isolated cells like this occur every year. But they mostly drop their rain onto places where no person or road exists. Thus no one to notice the aftermath.

Take some time to look at a satellite view of this area. There's lots of large dry stream beds and river channels that had to have been created by large masses of flowing water. All it takes is a storm like this (in any given location) for once every decade over 10's of thousands of years to create the topology of the desert.

syscom3 Wrote:
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> Take some time to look at a satellite view of this
> area. There's lots of large dry stream beds and
> river channels that had to have been created by
> large masses of flowing water. All it takes is a
> storm like this (in any given location) for once
> every decade over 10's of thousands of years to
> create the topology of the desert.

They it was told to me is like this "The Mojave Desert averages 1 inch of rainfall per year, AVERAGE. Usually, 10-15 years worth of rain will fall in one terrifying afternoon storm."

I'm in shock the locomotive did not dive down unto the bridge or maybe the train sit there.

Javier Ortiz
Dallas, TX