Railroad bridge catches fire and collapses - GIF and photo

[Jon]

1910 wooden railroad bridge catches fire and collapses like dominoes. San Saba, Texas.






Previously:

Big Blue crane collapse - GIF
Excavator collapses hillside - GIF
Mobile crane collapses while installing billboard, with possible dozer assist - GIF
Forklift collapses scaffolding during crane installation - GIF
Tank bridge - GIF
Lego bridge girder machine - GIF

[ranald]

All that beautiful hardwood gone up in smoke=pity. Wouldn't want to breath any fumes

[Ralphxyz]

That had to be a planned demolition, to have the flames evenly spread across the whole expanse has to be a man made fire. Does seem a shame!

Ralph

[ranald]

That had to be a planned demolition, to have the flames evenly spread across the whole expanse has to be a man made fire. Does seem a shame!

Ralph

I thought that too! But why not salvage in this day & age? The colour of the smoke suggests creosote which had organic compounds but could be harmfull so some.
I really dont know about burning it: would depend on age, i suppose? old power poles, railway sleepers etc still have the smell even if colour is gone from exterior.

[desbromilow]

That had to be a planned demolition, to have the flames evenly spread across the whole expanse has to be a man made fire. Does seem a shame!

Ralph

maybe not planned, but rather the effect of a redhot bearing dropping molten steel droplets as the carriage traveled along the track. all it needed to do was contact the soaked timbers and start and it would proceed fairly evenly (seen it happen in the past with scrub fires along tracks started by a collapsed axle bearing.(hot box failure))

[Frank S]

In the news back then it was unclear if the burning was the result of a hot box or arson. The hotbox (melting bearing) theory was the more plausible. Trying to find archived RR investigations can be difficult as the RR is like the Gov they don't willingly publish investigation outcomes and never allow ongoing investigation information to be published.
This spur at the time belonged to the Heart of Texas railroad now defunct taken over by CTCRR ( Central Texas & Colorado River Railway, LLC) now owned by OmniTRAX Inc
New short line begins operations in Central Texas – Texas Rail Advocates
The fire either started or was discovered around 4 PM on May 23 2013. It burned for about 15 hours.
I didn't find any reference as to when the last train had crossed it even searching the library of congress didn't turn up anything useful but again trying to search that conglomeration can be intimidating as well as overwhelming at times.

[hemmjo]

Could also have been a leaking tank car with flammable liquid. If you ever watch train pass at night, there are often sparks, on even a normal train with no issues. The sparks light the fluid. Only takes one spark to hit the right spot.