Cleanup continues where train derailed

The Bay City Times reports on the train derailment and bridge collapse that occured last Friday with further information provided by the Iosco News:

Cleanup continued Monday at the scene of a train accident that caused a railroad bridge to fall into the lower Au Sable River. "The bridge is currently in the process of being dismantled and cranes are en route or already there to remove it," said Lyle Tolfree, assistant controller for the Lake State Railway Co.

According to Will Gamble, Lake State Railway vice president of operations, the 44-car freight train was enroute to Bay City from Alpena, traveling at the maximum speed of 10 miles per hour, which he says was verified from the train's black box. When the train moved along the track between Loud Drive and F-41 in Oscoda, the tenth car from the rear jumped the rail. Preliminary analysis by Lake State determined that the derailed car, as it was pulled across the 150-foot river span, caught the corner of a steel girder, shoving the structure forward and off the corner of the concrete abutment. Then, Gamble said, the weight of the twisting car pulled the entire structure down to the river below, breaking it in half except for the rails.

When the trestle was built in 1913, it was designed to hold three times the weight of the company's heaviest steam locomotive. Although car weights have significantly increased since then, a fully loaded car is still below the century-old design capacity, he said. As for the damaged bridge, Gamble says the company will repair it. The 100-year-old bridge spanned the Au Sable River just west of Oscoda.

The railroad bridge is a total loss and must be replaced with a new structure, he said. Tolfree declined to give a cost estimate of the damage. A Wisconsin company that specializes in bridges is shipping a new bridge to the site this week. The company told railroad officials they could have the span operational by as soon as this weekend. Tolfree said Lake State is working with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the Department of Natural Resources at the site to protect the river as the bridge project moves forward.

The derailment blocked the river for two days, preventing the passage of boats with anglers, fishing for steelhead.