Did This Trestle Fire Really Happen?

My daughter sent me this from an unknown source, and I cannot find any other reference to the event.


Subject: REMEMBER, RULES ARE RULES!
To:
Date: Thursday, September 13, 2012, 10:57 AM
Read story before viewing photos.
The Good news:
It was a normal day in Sharon Springs , Kansas , when a Union Pacific crew
boarded a loaded coal train for the long trek to Salina.
The Bad news:
Just a few miles into the trip a wheel bearing became overheated and melted,
letting a metal support drop down and grind on the rail, creating white hot
molten metal droppings spewing down to the rail.
The Good news:
A very alert crew noticed smoke about halfway back in the train and
immediately stopped the train in compliance with the rules.
The Bad news:
The train stopped with the hot wheel over a wooden bridge with creosote ties
and trusses. When crew tried to explain to higher-ups they needed to move
the train, they were instructed not to move the train because Federal Rules
prohibit moving the train when a part is defective. Well okee-dokey then,
and the pictures tell the rest. As always the government knows what is best
for us.
REMEMBER, RULES ARE RULES!
Don't ever let common sense get in the way of a Good disaster!


I'm too stupid to attach the photos (3), but they show a lot of hopper? bathtub? cars on a burning trestle with a few autos/trucks in the foreground - one has a UP logo on it. I"m just a PFC: Poor F***ing Civilian, so be gentle!

The fire is true! it happened..
except the second part in the story you found:

The Bad news:
The train stopped with the hot wheel over a wooden bridge with creosote ties
and trusses. When crew tried to explain to higher-ups they needed to move
the train, they were instructed not to move the train because Federal Rules
prohibit moving the train when a part is defective. Well okee-dokey then,
and the pictures tell the rest. As always the government knows what is best
for us.
REMEMBER, RULES ARE RULES!
Don't ever let common sense get in the way of a Good disaster!

Is fake..fictional..made up.

link with the photos:

http://www.arizonarails.com/bad_day.html

and the ruling on "truth or fake?"

http://www.snopes.com/photos/accident/trainfire.asp

conclusion, the trestle fire was real, caused by a hot-box, but newer versions of the story have a fake additional "cause" of the fire added,
(the bit about the crew being forbidden to move the train, because "rules are rules"..that part was made up)

people with nothing better to do create internet chain letters, like the one posted above,
and add completely fictional elements to the story to make it sound "shocking" or "the government is stupid" or whatever..

Scot

I thank you Scot, for the info. I was having a problem with the last paragraph of my email because my 2009 copy of CFR Title 49 "Railroad Operating Practices" Part 218 appears to me not to explicitly cover stopping the train after seeing the hotbox, while GCOR (6th Ed.) Rule 6.29.2 certainly does.
Ms Samuelson's story says the train derailed, causing an emergency brake application, while the official findings imply the crew controlled stopping the train . . . .Which was it?

The Rules provide a basic framework in which the railroads operate. There are, however, situations that call for thinking out of the box. Such situations as described above can't be anticipated. Had the crew known sooner that there was a problem, perhaps they wouldn't have been on that trestle at that time. But it also stated there was a derailment probably involving the affected car. Indeed, it may have been on the ground for some time prior to the fire. Cars *can* be dragged along in train without anything happening until it hits a switch or a junction that wouldn't allow the wheel(s) or undercarriage to cross it. So the crew wouldn't have necessarily noticed it until the fire had already become severe enough to set the wooden structure on fire. They couldn't have noticed, or have known, that they were ON the trestle until they inspected the train to see what was up. By the time they could walk the train to the incident, the fire was well underway,and they did what they could: disconnect the rest of the cars and pull ahead in the clear.

Such judgements by non-qualified, armchair, and wannabe, "railroaders" always get my hackles up because they mostly don't know anything about what they are talking about. Its like the Monday morning "quarterbacks" who gather around the coffee machine and critique the football game. To hear them tell it ("He shoulda done this, he shoulda done that, blah, blah, blah"), they are experts in the game. And so it is with the "national railway 'hysterical' society" types who show up at a derailment asking questions and telling the railroad men what they shoulda done! There's usually more to the story than meets the eye, and we should know by now that the media talking heads are more stupid than rocks, and we should not take what they say seriously!

GF