Western Railroad Discussion > U.P. bridge at Logan NM

      I recieved these photos from a FaceBook spread. I assume surely they were taken by a UP operated drone since the person said he had no idea who it was.

     Photo 1. is the damage to the rail and bridge/tie timbers when the high winds blew 23 stack cars off the bridge last week. This is just west of Logan NM

     Photo 2. is of the debris being pulled away from the concrete pylons and into and area where it can be taken out of the river bottom, I believe that is the Canadian River way down there.

     Photo 3. is looking west I believe way over to the other side of the ravine while they were making repairs.

                Trains started running again saturday evening sometime, down about 48 to 72 hours. They certainly do good work and no injuries of course.
 

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Drones are the only way to show the aftermath of train wrecks. Too bad they weren't developed 50 years sooner. 

JoCoLB Wrote:
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> Drones are the only way to show the aftermath of
> train wrecks. Too bad they weren't developed 50
> years sooner. 

Oh, we had drones 50 years ago. But the military and the CIA didn't believe in sharing.

So I assume there was no damage to the bridge other than the track structure? 

Wow, amazing photos.   It's amazing what a railroad is capable of when it wants to do something.

Not like today's drones...
Chance-Vought tested its Regulus missile from Edwards AFB to Mojave Airport in the late '50s.
Nothing at all like what we have today.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

Congratulations on getting the repairs accomplished so quickly...and being lucky enough not to have had any worse damage.

True definition of heavy metal falling from the sky.

Well the Ryan Firebee target drone first flew in 1951 and became operational in 1952. During the Vietnam War the Firefly reconnaissance version was deployed . 

Harold, thanks to you for posting and to the UP drone for these tremendous photos here.  I've been curious of what's been going on and the update is appreciated much.  With the weight of these cars and containers, even with the extreme wind, we know it wouldn't be like blowing the works just sideways without gravity taking effect simultaneously.  It certainly shows the consequence here.  With the bridge being just south of Logan over the Canadian River it's good the Ute Lake dam west of the bridge has the majority of the water, allowing the area near the bridge for the wreckage clearing.  I can't imagine anyone fishing on that windy day, but if they were, thank God they weren't in this area at that moment.

Amazing recovery!

Those long rusty looking cross-braced pieces seen in center of picture two are remains of the east side walkway and related infrastructure. They can be seen on the ground in the pictures on page 2 of the link:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,4752396,page=2.