Originally Posted by
NutLoose
More on the melted tracks. If the bogies have melted like that and the fire was whipping underneath the bridge I would think that structure is dubious at the least. From about 27 secs you can see distortion on the bridge steels between both tracks.
https://twitter.com/bayraktar_1love/...DUsYvv1esrAAAA
Watching the videos I wondered why the burn lasted so long. Now looking at the gravel under the rail line I guess it could explain the long burn time.
It looks like the gravel is ‘contained’ under the track via low walls either side of the track.
From living beside a rail line for a time I know that there is a constant need to refresh gravel under the rails. Part of the reason is over time the gravel gets ground down to dust via regular ‘working’ of the gravel from heavy train usage.
When the fuel tanks initially burst a lot of the fuel would not burn but flow to the gravel below. If there is a course gravel layer that contains various layers diminishing sized grains through to dust than I guess that would be a good reservoir for a long lasting burn.
What I don’t know is would the gravel to dust layer, whilst feeding the fire above, also act as an insulator to the concrete below ?