In the late afternoon of April 16, a Kansas City Southern Railroad train derailed just east of Bruni, Texas. The derailment and a resulting fire rendered the 40 feet long, 14 feet high and four bent timber bridge, 49.75, inoperable, shutting down the main line.
As typical, KCSR sprung into action to restore service as quickly as possible, despite the fact that it was Easter Sunday.
While transportation crews responded immediately, by midnight, senior vice president international engineering Jerry Heavin, assistant chief engineer production Oliver Waltman and director bridge maintenance Pete Goodman were on the scene to set bridge reconstruction in motion. By 2:00 a.m., Goodman had called the foreman who had been working on a rebuild of bridge 111.69 in San Diego, TX. Arrangements were made for five trucks to pick up pilings and caps from the 111.69 job site and deliver them to 49.75 the next morning.
Also during the night, Goodman contacted Texas Division general superintendent Kiley Hinds to move rail cars loaded with bridge track panels from Ruliff, TX to 49.75. Goodman then contacted director work equipment Rex Allen to move stringers from Shreveport to Bruni first thing Monday morning. Bridge inspector Mike Schmidt was called to line up workers to break down a particular set of steel stringers for Rex Allen to move. Bridge foreman Carl Bryant was called to line up assistant foreman Kenneth Franks and mechanics Mark Hollier and Joseph Minor to head to the derailment site. By 6:00 a.m. Monday morning, the crane, hammer and leads from the 111.69 job site were in route to 49.75. By 2:30 p.m. on Monday, all the equipment and materials from 111.69 were on site at 49.75.
Once all the materials were in place, work began. Extremely hard sand made each piling take nearly an hour to drive. The deck was in place around 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, allowing track work to begin. Within a few short hours, the track was ready and the first train crossed the bridge at almost midnight on Tuesday, April 18. The KCSR team worked around the clock to rebuild the bridge. Thank you to everyone involved in this enormous feat and for quickly restoring service to customers.
