Union Pacific has quite a mess to clean up and repair with the derailment at Sims. But to restore service quickly they could simply just run trains through the bridge as is, missing structural members and all. Now before anyone calls me crazy, consider that this has been done before, and I have video evidence to prove it! Go back about 35 years or so, and take a look at "Americas Resourceful Railroad" in action. The Milwaukee Road had itself a derailment that looks very similar to what just happened on UP, with a car taking out one side of a truss bridge. This occurred a bit west of Cle Elum Washington in the late 1970's. This video here shows that at least one MOW train (very carefully) crossed the damaged bridge after the derailed cars were cleared away. Take a look here!

[youtu.be]

If the above link gets messed up the scene I am referencing starts at 35:55 in the video titled "Wrecked in the West - Working on the St. Maries Wrecker in the 1970s" on youtube.

Can you even imagine something like that happening today!? A look on google maps shows the bridge was fully repaired with a through plate girder replacing the truss bridge. Location of this bridge is here: [goo.gl]

If anyone has an hour to kill, I highly recommend watching the whole video. Some hair raising stuff, and shows just how bad things really were for the Milwaukee at the end.

Matt F
Moscow ID