Jack, That is good information to know. It makes total sense for the load restriction on the bridge. They did not turn the locomotive as I have photos from all three days the 844 is in town and when it left town it was the trailing unit. Looking back at my photos when it came into town the auxiliary water tender was just forward of the SD70.
Peter, If you see some UP on the Peavine hope you get some photos!
Rick, While I really don't want to speculate, a structural failure of the bridge seems very likely whatever the cause. It could have been to a poor inspection and a weakened load capacity or as you suggest, one of the cars left the rails and impacted the truss. There was a short discussion on teams for my office this morning and a co-worker who lives near there said she heard a loud boom just as it happened. Obviously lots of things could have caused that.
The latest news was that the tank cars did not leak and the photos look like mostly covered hoppers ended up burning. I'll probably head down there on my bike after everything has settled down over the weekend. There is a park on the north side that has some short buttes with excellent views and is well off the right of way.
