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Tempe, AZ - Train Derailment / Bridge Collapse / Fire 3

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What I don't understand is what's burning out there in the middle of the bridge? It doesn't even look like there are any rail cars out there or this they were, they were flatcars. Or was part of the bridge's roadbed constructed using wood, perhaps wood ties. I can see where the lumber cars are providing a lot of fuel, but behind those two or three burning lumber cars, you can't really see what's there at all.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
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It looks the actual derailment caused the collapse of the single span and then dragging one of the derailed cars caught the ties on fire further across the bridge. Its a riveted steel bridge constructed in 1912.
 
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News said:
There also was a tanker car that fell off the bridge. It's not clear what the tanker was carrying, but Arizona's Family reporter Gibby Parra said it had a hazardous materials warning sign on it. A 3TV viewer told Parra he saw a yellow triangle sign indicating flammable materials.
Click to expand...

Until enough is known about that tanker to rule it out, that material could be a possible source for the flames on the span. Though the statement about it indicating flammability is unclear to me. I'm not sure if they are indicating that because it had a yellow sign, it is flammable, or if the yellow sign they witnessed was a yellow flammable sign.

Either way that statement is suspect to me since DOT placards are diamonds and flammable placards are red, at least as far as I know.

Andrew H.
 
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One shot showing beginning part of the bridge shows cars back there also.
 
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The text in the article said that some of the rail cars were loaded with wood and that was what was burning:

nion Pacific spokesman Tim McMahan, who said the train was en route to Phoenix from Tucson, explained that two of the three tanker cars on the ground under the bridge contained cyclohexanone. The third contained a rubber material. "None are reported leaking, and no tank cars were involved in the fire," he said. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, cyclohexanone is a colorless oily liquid that is both flammable and an irritant. It's mostly used for the production of nylon.

The cars that burned for hours were carrying lumber, some of which fell into the lake.
 
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Any other links that people outside the US can see?

Or specific words to search on?

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.
 
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John, I think it's 99% likely that the ties are creosoted wood, so that would be what's burning on the bridge.
 
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TenPenny said:
John, I think it's 99% likely that the ties are creosoted wood, so that would be what's burning on the bridge.
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I'm going with 99.9%!

Brad Waybright

It's all okay as long as it's okay.
 
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Yes, in this video, taken about an hour later than the first one in this thread, at about the 0:40 point in the video you can see what looks like burning rail ties. You can also see a section of rail that was either damaged by the derailment or perhaps it warped due to the heat:


John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
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It makes me wonder why he didn't try that. Out in remote New Mexico, you could derail a train, siphon out the train car, escape and have a steak dinner before anyone got out there. As I remember, things escalated from there.
 
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If I recall correctly, they replaced the weight of the methylamine w/ water so the tanker weight was unchanged and nobody ever realized it was stolen.

But back to this train, saw an article yesterday that the FBI was involved in the investigation. Not sure if that is common or not in these cases.
 
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Trains are federal so the FBI is the investigatory group relating to this type stuff. Could be since the bridge was inspected about 30 days ago there is some suspicion about the derailment. Could also be an investigation into the validity of said inspection.

Keith Cress
kcress -
 
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If the railroad ties were burned up, there would be no way to pull the rail cars out or unload the rail cars. The bridge structure prevents the rail car from being lifted out.
 
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This is not a critical line, as Phoenix doesn't get that much rail traffic, but it's critical enough that they're already rebuilding it.
 
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