Burning 900 Foot Train Trestle Collapses
THERE SHE GOES!
Spoken by a volunteer fireman on the scene!
The Harmony Ridge Testle provided a spectacular display of burning creosote-soaked trestles!
Amazingly, the rails fall in one continuous rope like sequence!
Located in Lampasas County, Texas, this wooden trestle bridge dated back to when the railroad built in 1910. It is a fully working railroad belonging to the Heart of Texas Railroad. The Harmony Ridge Trestle spanned over 900 feet and carried trains hauling frack sand and wheat from Brady, Texas.
The Harmony Ridge Trestle was located in a remote area at least 8-10 miles from a main highway. The fire was considered too dangerous to fight by the volunteer firemen that responded. They did not have enough water to put out all of flaming trestles anyway. Trestle bridges are normally durable by design and often situated by necessity in difficult to access locations.
Due to the way trestle bridges are constructed, all of the piers work together so that when one goes, they all go!
The piers fall like dominoes from one end to the other!
The owner of the Heart of Texas Railroad estimated it would take between $10 to $20 million dollars to reconstruct a permanent bridge.
Let us know if you think the firemen could have put out this fire and how you think it might have started!
