Pacobell73 wrote:Oh, I know it was not an actual bomb: that was just my way of saying the PC allegedy felt the Poughkeepsie Bridge was something of an albatross, so they sent a train over it to purposely burn the bridge down. I know nothing has been proven, but after reading all the details over the years, I would not put it past the financially put-upon PC to literally "burn their own bridges."
That has to be the most asinine thing I've ever read here. And that's saying something. It's quite common and easy for a fire to be caused unintentionally by a train - one reason for mufflers and spark arrestors added to steam, and some diesel, locomotives. Hot spark + dry grass, dry wood, etc. = fire.
The last train over the bridge was PC symbol CB-2 at about 1:00 PM on May 8th, 1974, carrying connections from the L&HR train of the same symbol. About an hour later 700 feet of the east end bridge deck (crossing among other things the former NYC mainline) was on fire. The fire was extremely difficult to put out due to the winds and the height of the structure. The only wood in it was the ties and deck walkway. This is somewhat paraphrased right out of the Winter 1974 issue of Railfan Magazine. It also notes that due to many years of deferred maintenance water lines were broken or inoperative - and it also goes on to note that the ICC ended up forcing the PC to pay the same division rate to the L&HR as they got for hauling to Maybrook, but interchanging at Phillipsburg.
