Comments on: Bridges don’t just go bad from one day to the next, do they?

By: Hayden

Hayden — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:32:41 +0000

UP doesn’t always complete timely maintenance of its crossings–an example is the mainline crossing of Cordonices Creek in Berkeley (by UC Berkeley’s Albany Village student housing, and next to the Albany Target). Not only was that area of track subject to regular flooding, the crossing flexed in a very obvious way when trains crossed it.

Although the need for a repair was obvious for at least several years, UP delayed getting the necessary permits and initially submitted a design that it should have known was not permittable, and then initially refused to make any changes, thus resulting in further delays. That kind of permitting approach often seems to be status quo from UP.

Perhaps other areas of track were higher priority than that one crossing. However, UP seemed to move slowly on it once it did start moving.

By: Gary

Gary — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:25:16 +0000

If a crew dies (on Hours of Service) on a mainline there are generally only three reasons: Bad (inatentive) Dispatching; No “rested” crews for relief; Relief crew delayed arrival. Rest assured that the railroads DO take a penalty for delaying Amtrak. This can often amount to sizable amounts. Generally, frieght and coal traffic is held up for the priority passenger trains. Train crews expend their “Hours of Service” ven when their trains are not moving. This of course can lead to a train crew “dying” while in transit on their HoS.

By: Derek Webber

Derek Webber — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 16:00:36 +0000

US Hellgate Bridge with high speed trains video

By: Marcel Marchon

Marcel Marchon — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 04:54:46 +0000

About the crew “dying” - in this case, this happened on a busy doubletrack mainline in a very populated area. You’d think that in a case like this, a) the dispatcher would make sure that the train’s crew doesn’t die out there on the mainline and b) there would be a relief crew nearby …

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 01:53:59 +0000

Unfortunately, in extreme circumstances, a bridge CAN go from OK to BAD in one day. Factors such as freeze/thaw, inexperienced bridge inspectors, and accidents on the bridge can create an emergency bridge repair/replacement need. I’ve also seen instances where emergency bridge repair was necessary because a previous repair was done incorrectly, and the repair itself was going to cause a larger failure. It’s unfortunate, but it happens.

Also, on a note relating to the crew “dieing” on the track, I know it happened this past weekend on Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer. The train had to stop due to a BNSF equipment failure ahead. During the wait, the Amtrak crew died and the train failed to make it into Oklahoma from Texas that evening.