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Is there a rare mileage opportunity for California Zephyr riders, or was the train cancelled.

 

As information, it is definitely not Amtrak's track.  It's UPRR -- former D&RGW -- and Amtrak normally runs the CZ, one train each way, daily.  BNSF has trackage rights, but runs only a small number of trains each month.

 

Tis type of washout is a really bad deal, because, the signal system can still provide green signals if the rail is intact.  Sometimes there are detectors in fills where there is risk of washouts.

 

The BNSF (former Colorado & Southern) between Denver and Cheyenne is washed out in so many places that iit is not yet possible to tell when the service might be restored.  It normally has a lot of daily coal trains.  The UPRR line between Denver and Cheyenne is in a better location relative to the front range of the Rockies, and I wonder if it is currently intact?

In the discussion on Reddit, the original poster's friend works for Amtrak and took the pictures - another individual in the thread posted an additional picture from his father, an Amtrak engineer.  They've confirmed it's an Amtrak route.

 

Here's a link, but be warned - Reddit is quite a different world than what you may be accustomed to on the O Gauge Forum:

http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/co...s_new_bridge_design/

Originally Posted by ams:

In the discussion on Reddit, the original poster's friend works for Amtrak and took the pictures - another individual in the thread posted an additional picture from his father, an Amtrak engineer.  They've confirmed it's an Amtrak route.

Correct. It is an "Amtrak route", over the former D&RGW, then SP, and now Union Pacific. It is not however, "leased from the UP".

Originally Posted by breezinup:
Originally Posted by Hot Water:
I sure don't think that a trestle would have withstood THAT flood either.

Something with vertical support columns, perhaps not. A bridge at this location might be warranted. That's a lot more expense, of course. Presumably there was a culvert of some kind under the fill.

 

 

Given the degree of flooding, it's impossible to predict what would have withstood the force of the water.

 

Mother Nature takes great pleasure in proving mankind wrong...

 

Rusty

Originally Posted by Rusty Traque:
Given the degree of flooding, it's impossible to predict what would have withstood the force of the water.

 

Mother Nature takes great pleasure in proving mankind wrong...

 

Rusty

Not impossible; they would be able to determine a solution with engineering studies. However, a bridge will probably be ruled out due to expense (including the cost of re-routing traffic during construction). If it is determined that this flooding occurrence was a once in a hundred year event - or more (which it seems it was, but with global warming who knows what the future is)- then filling it in the way it was before is probably the solution that will be used. Just a useless guess by me, of course.

Last edited by breezinup
Originally Posted by breezinup:
Originally Posted by Rusty Traque:
Given the degree of flooding, it's impossible to predict what would have withstood the force of the water.

 

Mother Nature takes great pleasure in proving mankind wrong...

 

Rusty

Not impossible; they would be able to determine a solution with engineering studies. However, a bridge will probably be ruled out due to expense (including the cost of re-routing traffic during construction). If it is determined that this flooding occurrence was a once in a hundred year event - or more (which it seems it was, but with global warming who knows what the future is)- then filling it in the way it was before is probably the solution that will be used. Just a useless guess by me, of course.

In 1951, the Santa Fe parked 10 steam locomotives on a bridge over the flooding Kansas River in order to try to save the bridge from being washed out.

 

It didn't work.

 

Santa Fe's lost locomotives

 

It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature...

 

Rusty

Originally Posted by Rusty Traque:

I'm pretty sure that unless the Santa Fe lifted the bridge sections away with a Zeppelin, the Kaw River bridge was probably doomed in that 1951 flood.

 

1951 Kaw Flood

Rusty

 

 

That's a pretty low bridge - lots of examples of those washing out. If the bridge spans a deep gouge, different story. See the Kate Shelly bridge below (which I've crossed). Quite a view! Rather extreme example, but the subject ravine in Colorado appears deep enough that a bridge could span floodwaters successfully. Perhaps a design like the second picture. Something more modest. But I'm not an engineer (of either kind!).

Railroad Bridge photo: Impressive railroad bridge memorialday2012235.jpg

Last edited by breezinup
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