Western Railroad Discussion > Waynoka Bridge Fire

 The Main 2 bridge crossing Cimarron River just west of Waynoka, OK has burned.  Looks like the Transcon is single tracked in two locations for the time being.  The other is at Alva, OK about ten miles east where the BNSF never completed installing the second bridge over the South Fork Arkansas River.  This should make a mess of things at NOC and the system planning desks...

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if bnsf wishes they can fix it fast

The article, and the newscasters on video, said "This bridge is mainly used for train traffic".  I guess they are counting the occasional tresspassing kids that walk across it?  Gotta love Okie news outlets (and yes this is my local news, so I deal with this level of detail all the time).

rustys6004 Wrote: > ... Gotta love Okie news outlets ... 

That kind of send-up could & often does apply to ANY other news outlet! Anywhere... Anytime...

:^)

Interesting in that they used a pile trestle all the way across the river. Wonder if they get log jams when it floods? Looking on the satellite imagery, I see piles for a older railroad trestle upstream that probably used as a road bridge for a time. That older alignment had a sharp 90 degree bend on the western approach to the bridge;

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=36.56212,-98.93018&z=17&t=S

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Several years ago while railfanning near here I talked with a BNSF Roadmaster who stopped by to check on my wife and I at the grade crossing near the west end of Belva.  He told us that the concrete sections at the ends of the burned out bridge had been installed to prevent just this kind of thing.  I'm guessing the wide areas of the river that are perpetually moist just under the surface enabled the thick undergrowth under the old wooden sections, where that fancy expensive concrete insertions were as they say, like peeing upstream...and it's here the fire bagan.  If you've ever been here, it's a difficult bridge to access even by foot.

Jerry

If the way BNSF and its contractors worked to rebuild the trestle on the Zip sub in April is any indication, they'll be running trains in 7-8 days with steel pilings and concrete decking.

Bismarck Bill 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/21 12:25 by bmarti7.

Sure hate to get a green signal over that.......

Any market for annealed rail?

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rustys6004 Wrote: > ... Gotta love Okie news
> outlets ... 
>
> That kind of send-up could & often does apply to
> ANY other news outlet! Anywhere... Anytime...
>

It's comical sometimes to listen to news reporters say inane or blatantly obvious things.  They're almost as bad a sports figures during interviews.  I remember years ago before a hockey game when the commentator was interviewing Barry Melrose, who was the coach of the L.A. Kings.  Barry said, "If we can score more goals than them, we can win this game."  Well, DUH!!  Another hilarious one I remember was John Madden, showing a replay of a bobbled and dropped pass, circling it with his teleprompter and telling us viewers, "...and when you drop the ball like that, you're gonna get an incomplete pass every time."

No log jam there are no trees up river
funnelfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Interesting in that they used a pile trestle all
> the way across the river. Wonder if they get log
> jams when it floods? Looking on the satellite
> imagery, I see piles for a older railroad trestle
> upstream that probably used as a road bridge for a
> time. That older alignment had a sharp 90 degree
> bend on the western approach to the bridge;
>
> http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=36.56212,-98.93018&z=17
> &t=S



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/21 16:26 by gwl.

With new math nowdays, nothing is a sure thing. :))


NWRail Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> santafe199 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > rustys6004 Wrote: > ... Gotta love Okie news
> > outlets ... 
> >
> > That kind of send-up could & often does apply
> to
> > ANY other news outlet! Anywhere... Anytime...
> >
>
> It's comical sometimes to listen to news reporters
> say inane or blatantly obvious things.  They're
> almost as bad a sports figures during
> interviews.  I remember years ago before a hockey
> game when the commentator was interviewing Barry
> Melrose, who was the coach of the L.A. Kings. 
> Barry said, "If we can score more goals than them,
> we can win this game."  Well, DUH!!  Another
> hilarious one I remember was John Madden, showing
> a replay of a bobbled and dropped pass, circling
> it with his teleprompter and telling us viewers,
> "...and when you drop the ball like that, you're
> gonna get an incomplete pass every time."

ATSF5669 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>  The Main 2 bridge crossing Cimarron River just
> west of Waynoka, OK has burned.  Looks like the
> Transcon is single tracked in two locations for
> the time being.  The other is at Alva, OK about
> ten miles east where the BNSF never completed
> installing the second bridge over the South Fork
> Arkansas River.  This should make a mess of
> things at NOC and the system planning desks...


Actually, three locations. AFAIK, the single track bridge at Sibley, MO, east of K.C. is still in service.  It will be interesting to see how long it takes BNSF to replace this bridge.  Also, has anyone heard anything about the proposed Sibley Bridge replacement?  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

There was a derailment near Arkansas City, Kansas years ago of a bunch of empty grain hoppers and when a reporter asked the conductor what was in the cars he replied "sailboat fuel" and the paper printed it.