Portland & Western train derails on Wood Trestle over Olalla Slough in Toledo, OR

P&W/SP: (Satellite)

1936 Original US-20 Bridge: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Logging Railroads of the Pacific Northwest posted
Thought some of you would find this interesting. Near Toledo Oregon a day ago [Jan 21, 2026]. Portland & Western services the Georgia-Pacific mill there.

Leaf Jess Norick: Traves A Allen probably was inspected by the same inspector who passed the burned out trestle next to Avery Park in Corvallis.... the one that later collapsed under the weight of a train hauling chemical fertilizer, dumping craptons of it into Mary's River.

Bob Davidson: Leaf Jess Norick It was a broken rail just before the bridge, not a bridge failure.

Engines were dragged onto the bridge before it could come to a stop.

Nick Miller: From what I understand it was a failure in the ties. The underlying structure will be okay and they’ll be able to put the rail back.

Jeremy Taylor: They derailed beforehand and dragged it on the bridge. Most of what you see "collapsed" or hanging off is the walkway. The slug is dangling though.

J.B. Rail Photo posted

Wow that's crazy!!!

Jan 21-28: This screenshot was from Jan 28.

3:41 video @ 3:21
Timelapse: Crews work to free 3 locomotives stranded on Oregon trestle

Jan 30, 2026:

Oregon Coast Explored posted

A week after a Portland & Western Railroad train ran off its rails while crossing a wooden bridge over a small river in Toledo is now cleared. 

The train was headed from Toledo to Albany in the early morning hours of Jan. 21, when it derailed on the trestle over Olalla Slough.

The cause of the derailment was a broken rail. 

📷 Steve's Drone Videos

Another article based on the 3:41 video above.

OregonLive

This ends on Jan 28 because that is when Steve's 3:41 video ends. Casey estimates that it will take another week to remove the locomotives, but it took just another day.

7:30 video @ 0:07
Casey Jones - Professional Engineer

Jan 30: 

1 of 5 photos and 7 videos posted by Steve's Drone Videos with the comment: "The day after the removal of the engines from the trestle!"

52 photos and videos

Unfortunately, Steve got every day except Jan 29, the day the locomotives were removed. Fortunately, 7idea Productions caught that action. At the end he provides links to his two other videos about this incident. The first one is mostly a railfan video. The second one shows the pile driving done to create the temporary bridge.

11:47 video @ 4:05
Back on the Rail [Toledo Derailment Update]

Facebook Reel

A 6:03 video arguing that the timber piles can easily hold the weight of the locomotives.

1936 US-20 Wood Bridge over West Olalla Slough in Toledo, OR

While looking for the P&W bridge, I noticed that US-20 used to go through this town. In fact, according to BridgeHunter_1936, the original route still has a wood bridge over the West Olalla Slough.

UP/MKT/OK&T/1889 Rock Island Bridge over Cimarron River near Dover, OK, collapsed Sep 18, 1906

1889: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter is broke; no Historic Bridges)

Replacement: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

MKT = Missouri-Kansas-Texas (Katy)

OK&T = Oklahoma, Kansas & Texas It operated the route between Dallas and Salina, KS.

Charlene Hagen posted two photos with the comment: "Dover, Oklahoma achieved notoriety on September 18, 1906, when the Cimarron River bridge collapsed, allowing Rock Island Number 12, a passenger train, to crash into the waters below. The loss of life, at least one hundred, made this one of the nation's worst train wrecks**.    There are numerous conflicting reports however, with some stating only 4 people perished in this accident, but we will never know the true number.  The engine is still under there to this day."

David Heinrichs: According to what I heard overloaded train with quite a few families on it. There was something sticking out that was on the train that caught the bridge support causing the bridge to collapse. The train is still there sunk down in like quick sand. Guy from Dover my age said you could swim down and touch and see the train.

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Street View, Oct 2025

The Rock Island bridge was a "temporary" bridge built in 1898 to replace a wood trestle that was wrecked when heavy rains shifted the sandy river bottom. "Eight years later, the temporary bridge was still there. So was Dover, and its residents had spent nearly all of the intervening years demanding that the Rock Island replace their bridged with something built to last, something that would be safer because it would rest atop piles driven under the water, through the sand, and deep into bedrock. But . . . nothing happened until 1906." [okielegacy]

I presume that is the collapsed wood trestle in the background of this newspaper photo.

ODOTdatabase

Oklahoman explains why UP sued a contractor to leave the locomotive in the sandy river bottom.

I could not find anything on what replaced the 1906 trestle nor when today's steel-girder bridge was built.

Bonus

There is a 1921 truss bridge preserved about a couple miles west of Dover.

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

The bridge is 800' (244m) long because of a large floodplain on the south side. I picked this view to emphasize the floodplain. And the trusses are pin connected.

Street View, Sep 2023

It looks like it has its original railings.

Street View, Sep 2023

Limbo/UP/D&RGW Tennessee Pass Tunnel North of Leadville, CO

North (West) Portal: (Satellite)

South (East) Portal: (Satellite)

I labeled this route as "Limbo" because someone wanted to buy it, but UP refused to sell it even though they have designated it as out of service. This route was made obsolete by the Moffat Tunnel.

South (East) Portal:

Richard Crabtree posted

On Tennessee Pass

Here we see Denver & Rio Grande Western No. 5744 EMD F7A (1950) on the point of her train at Tennessee Pass

Tennessee Pass, Colorado

August 13 1966

Photo Al Chione

Earle Kittleman: This is on the Minturn side. Correct?

[Minturn is a town that is north of the pass.]

Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad shared with the comment: "A spectacular shot."

Tim Fornstrom: Cool. A friend ran helpers out of Minturn until they closed Tennessee Pass. He's an engineer on the California Zephyr now. I was in Vail on a ski trip and took a day to chase trains on the pass not long before it was shut down.

North (West) Portal:

Chris Nuthall commented on Earle's comment
No, that goes straight into a left hand curve as you leave the tunnel.

Kevin Rodriquez, Mar 2025

Rich B, Oct 2024

Note how US-24 was able to climb up along the side of a mountain on the south side of the pass but had to wiggle back and forth to quickly descend into the Piney Creek Valley.

1951/51 Holy Cross Quad @ 62,500

I had to zoom way out to determine the timetable (east/west) directions.

1957/78 Leadville Quad @ 250,000

1884 UP/D&RGW Bridge over Colorado River in Grand Junction, CO

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Street View, Sep 2023

Street View, Oct 2014

Frank Keller Photography posted
The Montrose Local crosses the Colorado River just east of the confluence with the Gunnison River which it will follow south towards Delta on a miserable morning that would end up being on of the most satisfying days I ever spent along the Rio Grande.

c1903 photo via HistoricalFruitaPhotos via BridgeHunter

Not too many pin-connected trusses are carrying Class I loads in the 21st Century.

Trail View, Oct 2014

Trail/Katy Tunnel and Moniteau Creek Bridge at Rocheport, MO

Tunnel: (Satellite)

Bridge: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

The town as preserved the Katy depot as its city hall.

In the center of the bridge, through the railing, you can see the plate girders of the main span.

Rose Hewitt, Oct 2022

Alex Thomas posted four photos with the comment:

BUILDING A RAILROAD TUNNEL AT ROCHEPORT MO, CIRCA 1890

The Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway network—the KATY Lines—completed a tunnel at Rocheport, Mo., in 1892, beside the Missouri River.

Today the tunnel remains as a feature of the Katy Trail State Park across Missouri, for hiking and bicycling.

"Located in Rocheport, this short tunnel carries the Katy Trail under Moniteau Bluff ... a 243-foot structure, blasted through rock," reports John Marvig, photographer/preservationist of railroad bridges in America.

"Work for the tunnel was contracted to the R.P. McCormick & Company of Kansas City, Missouri. The structure was originally intended to be 440-feet long, but was shortened due to the nature of the bluff."

"The walls of the tunnel are lined with cut stone, and brick has been added to portions of the ceiling at the west end to stabilize the tunnel. This tunnel is the only tunnel along the Katy Trail."

Click photos for notes and credits

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Lyndel Morrow, Mar 2020
[I assume the photo was uploaded in 2020, not taken.]

It looks like there is a truss bridge still left somewhere on the Katy Trail.

mostatepark

Jason Stites, Sep 2024

There is a big cut on the west side.

a z, Aug 2018

Postcard via BridgeHunter

Photo by James Baughn via BridgeHunter
This 1942 deck girder bridge replaced the truss after it was destroyed by a derailment.

"This bridge has new abutments and a new concrete deck." [Garrett comment on ArchivedBridgeHunter]

2016 photo by John Marvig via BridgeHunter

I saw some photos of signs that indicated that the trail was closed because of flooding.

1952/53 Rocheport Quad @ 24,000

1906 Abandoned/SP Bridge over Guadalupe River near Comfort, TX

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Street View, Aug 2023

2014 photo by Royce and Bobette Haley via BridgeHunter

Lonestar Hippie Hiker posted
One of my favorite old bridges to photograph.
Lonestar Hippie Hiker shared

Elizabeth Rowland commented on Lonestar Hippie Hiker's post

Elizabeth Rowland commented on Lonestar Hippie Hiker's post
Love it too, in high school in the late 1970's there was an abandoned home on that road that we thought was haunted, the occasional squeal of the windmill would get us running away, ha; we loved that bridge and think we had more access to it then.

Gary Miller commented on Lonestar Hippie Hiker's post

Gary Miller commented on Lonestar Hippie Hiker's post

Gary Miller commented on Lonestar Hippie Hiker's post

Michael B Huwar commented on Lonestar Hippie Hiker's post

Lonestar Hippie Hiker posted
From the side of the road..... 
Lonestar Hippie Hiker shared

This photo shows that the two longer spans are pin connected and were built in 1900. Other photos show that the shorter span was built in 1906. I wonder if the 1906 span replaced a part of the wood trestle that got washed out during a flood.

2014 photo by Royce and Bobette Haley via BridgeHunter
[Thay have provided a lot of detail photos in BridgeHunter.]

1964/66 Waring Quad @ 24,000