Train derails into Yellowstone River after bridge collapse

[riversedge]

Source: abc





The incident has led to closure of parts of Yellowstone and Stillwater rivers.


By Patricio Chile and Peter Charalambous June 24, 2023, 12:45 PM


A bridge that crosses the Yellowstone River in Montana collapsed, sending portions of a freight train that was traveling over it into the water below, state officials said.

Multiple tanker cars were damaged and are leaking petroleum products near the Yellowstone River, the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office said.


The derailment into the Yellowstone River near Twin Bridges Road between Reed Point and Columbus has led to the closure of parts of the Yellowstone and Stillwater Rivers, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said Saturday.

State officials are advising the public to avoid parts of the Yellowstone River due to "potential contaminants."......................................................






Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/train-derails-yellowstone-river-after-bridge-collapse/story?id=100356919&cid=social_twitter_abcn&cid=social_twitter_abcn

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I do not see anything about causalities at this point.


Nick Sortor
@nicksortor
·
29m
🚨 #BREAKING: A large emergency response is underway after a freight train collapsed into the Yellowstone River in Montana

“Hazardous materials” are feared to be spilling into the river, and officials are are warning residents to begin limiting water usage IMMEDIATELY

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PHOTO: Several train cars are immersed in the Yellowstone River after a bridge collapse near Columbus, Mont., on June 24, 2023.
Several train cars are immersed in the Yellowstone River after a bridge collapse near Columbus, Mont., on June 24, 2023.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks - Region 5
A bridge that crosses the Yellowstone River in Montana collapsed, sending portions of a freight train that was traveling over it into the water below, state officials said.

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[cilla4progress]

1. Are you fucking

Kidding me

[MontanaMama]

14. Took the words out of my mouth.

[Kali]

2. yikes!

[riversedge]

3. ..."a freight train carrying hazardous materials to plunge into the flooded river below,"....

A bridge that crosses Yellowstone River in Montana collapsed early Saturday morning, causing portions of a freight train carrying hazardous materials to plunge into the flooded river below, officials said.

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[Srkdqltr]

6. I think someone needs to read what they post.

[C Moon]

21. LOL!

[Tom Kitten]

4. Yikes

Oh no what was in those tanker cars

[riversedge]

5. wider view photo...............

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[Liberty Belle]

7. Damn. Is this north of the national park,south of it,or in the park?

The Yellowstone River is relied upon by much of the park's iconic wildlife including herds of bison and elk. Heads need to roll for allowing this catastrophe to happen in one of our most treasured places.

[BluesRunTheGame]

10. The park won't be affected.

[riversedge]

12. @MontanaFWP Yellowstone River is closed from Pelican FAS to Buffalo Mirage FAS to boaters and floate

@MontanaFWP
Yellowstone River is closed from Pelican FAS to Buffalo Mirage FAS to boaters and floaters. This includes Braaten and Indian Fort FASes.

From Indian Point to Buffalo Mirage, avoid water due to possible contact with contaminants.

FWP will update closures as necessary. (3/3)

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[MontanaMama]

16. It's north of the park.

Still, this is an iconic trout fishery.

[riversedge]

8. LOTS of tweeters Blaming Pres Biden..........

damn them!
Here a just a few of their ugly tweets!

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[maxsolomon]

18. Weaponizing everything they can.

A Repuke is president? Time to cut funding for rail infrastructure maintenance...

[Lonestarblue]

25. Sheer ignorance. A majority of freight railroad tracks are owned by private, for-profit companies.

They are responsible for rail maintenance, but profits come first. The federal government owns some tracks, mostly Amtrak and rails in the northeast, and some states own and maintain rails. I don’t know who owns the tracks where this bridge failed, but it could well be a private company. It’s obvious from all the other train derailments this year that maintenance is being neglected.

[The Jungle 1]

33. Looks like a very old bridge.

Can't wait to see the inspection reports on that rusty hulk.

[William Seger]

35. I just spent 4 days on trains in the last 2 weeks

... and we went across several bridges that looked like rusty hulks. Worse, there were many, many places where the rail unevenness caused the cars to rock back and forth violently, which scared the hell out of me. I guess Amtrak knows how far they can rock before they need to do something about fixing the track? I kept thinking, maybe they don't!

[mjvpi]

34. Rail lines are owned by BNSF railroad, most probably.

They might be owned by the Washington Corp operating as Montana Rail Link. They own some branch lines and did have a long term lease on this southern line across Montana. They were trying to get out of the lease, but I don’t know what happened. Dennis Washington ( Washington Corp) is the richest man in Montana.

[Strelnikov_]

9. Railroads and lack of maintenance

Pretty clear to me it is a scour failure of a pier. In that the pier is no where to be seen.

Note the extreme angle of attack on the piers. This is a problem with western 'braided' streams, in that the conveyance vector is constantly moving.

Combine that with most railroads lack of maintenance regarding such issues . . .

Was a similar failure in NE a few years ago.

[Liberty Belle]

11. AP:Cars were carrying hot asphalt and sulfur, 110 miles north of Yellowstone Natl Park

https://apnews.com/article/montana-bridge-collapse-train-dbd905bac1b35a63107213db7983bafc

The good news is asphalt is thick and slow moving, making containment easier than oil or liquid chemicals.

The bad news:"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that sulfur is a common element used as a fertilizer as well as an insecticide, fungicide and rodenticide."

I read elsewhere that it's believed the bridge collapsed overnight, which caused the derailment, not the other way around.

[2naSalit]

31. I question the when of that...

Since the engine isn't in the water. If the bridge had collapsed prior to the train's arrival, the engines would have taken the dive. These trains, that pass through that stretch, are usually very long, like a like or two long, and have very few crew members on them so no surprise there were no casualties.

The river is really cold and running hard as we're in full scream ahead runoff with flood watches on the Yellowstone all the way through the state. We're also having heavy rain events this week end.

[Historic NY]

13. Circa 1897 bridge they demolished another in the vincinity

back in 2022 of the same vintage

[2naSalit]

30. Do you mean the one...

By US89 North going to White Sulfur Springs? That was taken down because the flood swept away its foundation along the banks, hasn't been in use for decades. I used to walk across it to cross the river.

[MontanaMama]

15. Paging DUer 2naSalit...

Any local scuttle about this?

[2naSalit]

27. Well...

I went outside to yank some weeds out by their roots for therapy and look what happened! And I was tryna catch up on the the russia stuff!

Okay so I haven't heard back from my friend in Columbus yet but I travel the frontage road when I go out there.

The only bridge I can thin of between there and Reed Point is a little ways from the Interstate because hills. This sucks, there are several Great Blue Heron rookeries down river from there as well as eagle and osprey nests. A lot of irrigation comes out from the Columbus area and beyond.

And the river is raging, teetering on flooding the whole way down right now, there was just a major thunderstorm alert on the radio five minutes ago for Stilwater and Carbon Ctys, there's some big-assed monster clouds down this way right now and I can sort of see some of them over there. It's just another bad thing for the river.

I haven't seen anything about this wreck beyond the news in the OP so far.

[Deuxcents]

17. That bridge doesn't even look sturdy enough for freight trains

These ridiculous comments saying it’s Biden’s fault when he’s got the infrastructure bill finally past and working to fix the bridges. Tfg didn’t get it done but no comments about that.

[Bayard]

19. It pisses me off!

Biden aiming at repairing/replacing infrastructure, while rethugs stand in the way.

There are far too many accidents involving trains lately.

[2naSalit]

28. Probably also owned by the RR.

Private property.

[Snackshack]

20. Okay

A train did not derail. The bridge fell out from under it….big difference.


I am surprised this has not happened more with the way we ignore our infrastructure. I recently was in Portland driving and some of the bridges there gave me pause.

[LiberalArkie]

26. Nationally, there are about 77,000 private rail bridges, and eight federal employees to inspect them

[2naSalit]

29. +1

[C Moon]

22. Update: 1:45 p.m. Columbus Fire Chief Rich Cowger offered further information...

Columbus Fire Chief Rich Cowger offered further information to clarify the number of rail cars involved in the derailment and what they contained.

He said 10 cars in the train were derailed and there were as many as eight that went into the water. The cars that were breached either contained molten sulfur or asphalt, but there was no immediate information on the contents of all the cars.

Two of the rail cars were carrying sodium hydro sulfate, he said, but those cars did not breach.

[murielm99]

23. I used to have family in Laurel.

[mountain grammy]

24. We are so far behind on infrastructure..

It'll take years to catch up, and that's with a Democratic Congress.

[Canoe52]

32. Just learned recently the Yellowstone River flows into the Missouri River

which then flows into the Mississippi River.