Dean, you got hillbilly relations out Gore way?
Railroad bridge collapses
GORE -- A railroad-bridge collapse brought down a Union Pacific coal train early Wednesday afternoon.
Fourteen of the 133 cars bound for Arkansas with Wyoming coal derailed when an 80-foot-long bridge gave way in a wooded area about 2 <sup>1</sup>/2 miles northwest of Gore.
Six of those cars plummeted into Cedar Creek, where they lay piled up like crumpled tin cans.
Coal poured out of the cars like spilled flour, and loose pistons were stacked up in the creek like dominoes.
Three employees were on the train, but no one was injured, officials said.
Ruby Henry's property abuts the railroad bridge.
She said the collapse sounded like a what happens when a vehicle drive shaft breaks when you're "going over the rough stuff."
Alarmed by what she heard just outside her pasture, Henry grabbed her gun.
"I was going to shoot their asses out," she said.
Joe Arbona, a Union Pacific spokesman, said railroad investigators have not determined what caused the bridge to collapse, but an employee at the scene didn't think it had anything to do with the icy weather, he said.
"The railroad is familiar with operating in severe weather," Arbona said.
He said the bridge will have to be replaced along with 10 panels of train track.
Alternative routes will be taken until the repairs and replacements are complete.
The cars that fell were near the back of the train. Each box car holds 142 tons of coal.
The crumbling sounds of metal continued hours after the accident.
Arbona said crews will use special equipment to remove the spilled coal.
"They have what's basically like a vacuum cleaner machine that will remove all of the coal particles," he said.
Gore Police Chief Jerry Fields said he is thankful that at least the coal didn't spill onto city streets.
"It would have made a mess," he said.
The accident site is in a rural area far from roads.
According to its Web site, Union Pacific is the largest railroad in North America, operating in the western two-thirds of the United States.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/NewsStory....A13_Railr71575
Originally Posted by 8timechamps
