The Kerch Bridge 24 hours later

[Tomconroy]

There is some video out this morning. It looks like the few cars that are crossing have police escorts. You can.see the damage to the RR bridge. 24 hrs and the fuel tanks are still there plus a crane.
I've read some claims that the video of the train crossing last night was fake. The Kerch Bridge has single gage track as opposed to double gage. I have no idea.
I thought by now we would see video of regular car traffic and at least one real train going across in daylight (It's 2:00pm over there now). I've looked for the latest video but this is all.Ive found. IMHO that bridge was righteously fucked.

Link to tweet

Don't trust. Verify. You can go past the warning. All it shows are the bridges. Russian twitter trolls must be at work hoping you don't watch.

Today. That does seem to show a double gage I guess.

Link to tweet

[SheltieLover]

1. I hope Patron sneezes again!

[Raine]

3. Me too. I loved seeing his cute sneeze blow up that bridge, hahaha! 😂 nt

[SheltieLover]

4. Me too!

[2naSalit]

2. Have to have an acct to open vid.

[SheltieLover]

5. It played for me & I don't have acct.

Try again?

[2naSalit]

6. Nope...

Says: Log in to view.

[SheltieLover]

7. That is so weird!

Maybe someone more knowledgable can suggest a work around for you.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Not only does it need a login, you have to give your birthday

to say you're over 18 (because, I presume, trolls are marking anything to do with the bridge as 'adult' - it's only video of cars going slowly along the bridge). This is something Twitter needs to sort out - it currently allows a weight of trolls to restrict perfectly acceptable images.

[oldsoftie]

12. I was able to view after clicking "view" to pass the "sensitive content" tab

Which is on a lot of stuff that has absolutely no sensitive content in any form

[dsc]

30. that is because you have an account and they know you are over 18

those without accounts would have to provide their birthday.

[questionseverything]

40. I watched with out an account

[PatSeg]

14. Yeah, that warning was bizarre

There was nothing "sensitive" about the video whatsoever.

[mitch96]

15. Worked for me and I don't have an account. I went in and cleared all my cookies and cashes

and it opened again no problem. Maybe it's the browser? Desktop vs laptop vs phone?
computer voodoo again.
m

[Lonestarblue]

18. Worked for me, too. No log in required. I'm on an iPad.

[Genki Hikari]

33. Desktops and laptops use the exact same OSes and browsers.

Did you mean tablets? They use different, "light" versions of operating systems and browsers.

[mitch96]

36. I thought tablets and phones use the same IOS b/c some tablets can make calls.

I might be wrong on that...
m

[Tomconroy]

9. I tried looking for other tweets but they all have that warning

When I post. Orcs at work. Some can see it though. It just shows what I described.

[niyad]

19. It worked for me here the first time. After seeing your post, I tried it again,

and ran into the same problem you did. very weird.

[2naSalit]

21. Happens a few times a day.

It only began a month or two ago... maybe a little longer but it's a relatively new thing.

[Stinky The Clown]

25. Same here. Could not get to the vid. Wants me to get an account.

No.

And, by the way, fuck Elon Musk.

[2naSalit]

29. That's what...

I'm talkin' about.

[Justice matters.]

8. Satellite images in Twitter thread (double gage track)

Link to tweet

Mike Eckel
@Mike_Eckel
new satellite imagery of the Crimea/Kerch Bridge from this morning, 11:01 a.m. (local time), showing the collapsed road span and burning rail cars on the adjacent rail track. 📸
@Maxar

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Part of a pier supporting the road fell in the explosion

It was T-shaped, and the arm supporting one carriageway has fallen, with that carriageway. I don't think they can trust the remaining arm and carriageway with anything like a normal load - in a normal country that didn't have need for propaganda, it'd be closed until the pier could be rebuilt.

[localroger]

16. Yes this is propaganda for people who don't know how things work

A typical car weighs 2,000 to 4,000 lb. They are letting a few pass at a time so as not to set up too much vibration. But Russia needs to be able to ship supplies across that bridge. A loaded tractor trailer weighs 80,000 lb. It puts twenty times the stress on the roadbed that a car does. That bridge could support cars going across it all day long but snap as the first loaded truck passes. Same with the train tracks that have now been heat un-treated. Passenger rail cars weigh 40,000 to 60,000 lb but loaded freight cars typically weigh around 200,000 lb. Again, they could let passenger trains crawl across the bridge all day long but the first serious freight train to try it might end up in the strait.

[mitch96]

17. "n a normal country that didn't have need for propaganda" well thats what you get when you

have an ex spy, now dictator running the country.
It's all about optics I guess. Can you take a hit and still look good..uff
It reminds me of this Monte Python skit with the Knight loosing arms and legs but not acknowledge a problem. Same with putin...
BTW he gets lower case b/c he is not worthy of caps...
m

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. Twin track is not double gage. Double gage is track within track

The short section in the second tweet is not an actual track between outer tracks.

The picture shows twin tracks.

[Paha Sapa]

20. Considered to be a double main line.

I am surprised that the rail is not CWR (continuous welded rail). Nonetheless, all of that heat is really bad for the structure, both steel and concrete. If I was a train crew member I would be wearing a life vest while crossing this section. The long steel angled pieces between the rail are called guard rails. They try to keep a derailed wheel set (called a truck) from heading off the bridge causing a lot more trouble.

[2naSalit]

22. The structural integrity...

Is trashed in several spots, all three lanes.

I don't think a life vest will do anything but offer a little padding on the way down.

I once had the opportunity to drive a train inside a roundhouse rail yard and I decided early on during the visit that I would never be able to drive one of those due to the stress from fear of falling off the tracks. From up in the driver's seat, that double ribbon of thin rails looks pretty unstable, they don't look straight at all and it feels like one is set precariously atop the flimsiest of platforms in a large, top heavy mass of steel with the potential to be a land rocket.

I was given leave to actually control the engine and it freaked me out. Mind you, I had already been driving 18 wheelers for several years at that point. Once the engine started to move along those wiggly lines down there and looking out the window, at that moment I realized that there is no escape from death or irreparable bodily harm should there be a wreck of any magnitude. If you leave via window, the rest of the train will get you by the time you hit the ground, worse if the plunge is from any height. You might have time to say a prayer real quick.

I suspect that there might be more problems if they try to use the bridge in its compromised state.

[Paha Sapa]

24. I was a gandy dancer for quite a few years on track that would scare the crap out of you.

You would not believe how bad the track was back in the day and what a train would be able to cross. Going very slow worked most of the time. When it didn't there was a hell of a mess. We had a train that derailed twice on the same run. Ah, fun times.

[2naSalit]

27. Yeah...

I thought I was ready for the really heavy stuff but I discovered that day that I never will be and I'm okay with that. At least on the pavement you have options should you leave it, the survival quotient is much greater.

I have a lot of nerve and shown it out loud but that was past my limit. I have taken passenger rail since and that was in the back of my mind but at the same time I had a tacit understanding of a basic philosophy about driving. I concluded that the rail drivers had as much confidence and skill as I did in their element. There are roads and speeds at which I will travel with confidence that others would shy away from, in a semi, so I can imagine the rail drivers would know where to draw the line if things were too hinky, especially with passengers. I had to make that conclusion for my own comfort because I actually enjoy travel by rail.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

34. Thanks for the explanation of the guard rail. . . . nt

[Paha Sapa]

41. No problem.

It appears to be something like that, but might be something to maintain tie spacing. When I worked on track here in the states we used rail as a guardrail. They would come to a point just before a bridge. Check it out sometime. They were on all our bridges. I just wanted to say it appears to be a guardrail, but could be something else.

[Ilsa]

23. Secret weapon:

Link to tweet

?t=RXNoQSiGqHRWcAfTmi0Nnw&s=19

[lpbk2713]

26. Attack again now.

Eliminate the specialists and the equipment who would not be there to repair the bridge next time.

[2naSalit]

28. +1

[roamer65]

32. +1000

[PortTack]

31. Read the reason for an escort of the cars going across is to assure no more sabotage

[Bernardo de La Paz]

35. Because RuZZia propaganda can't admit 2 things: 1) defences failed, 2) bridge barely useable. nt

[Genki Hikari]

38. Never believe anything russkie officials say--about anything.

Checkpoints and targeted searches before allowing access to the bridge could handle more traffic faster and more efficiently than escorting them across in small numbers. Checkpoints and targeted searches are the kind of thing the Russians might actually be good at, still.

So it's not about "security."

They're being escorted across because they know the bridge is too unstable for heavier traffic, but they want to lie that their "brilliance" has already made it "open and operational." Or that the damage wasn't nearly as severe as their "enemies" have said.

Lying that way is SOP for them.

[PortTack]

39. Maybe maybe not. A random car could stop and meet up with a boat carry explosives

The Ukrainians have been masters at deception and trickery. They’ve proven anything is possible

[Genki Hikari]

42. They're not good enough to hide bombs from a search team

Who conducts a full search of a vehicle.

If you've never been through a checkpoint when it's on high alert, you have no idea how easy it is for a well-trained search team to find whatever they're looking for.

Again, the Russians ARE still good at conducting searches. Nobody is getting past them with bombs. Not when they're this on edge.

[Genki Hikari]

37. Of course any footage from the russkie trash

Would be suspect.

Twitter won't let me watch it, but I don't need to. I know whatever it showed would expose them as liars.

Even with a more "ordinary" train crash on land, it can take several days, if not weeks, to clear out all the cars. Only then can they do a full damage assessment on the rails and bridge before repairs can begin, never mind usage.

With a bridge this long, over a huge expanse of water? If there are cranes capable of lifting them, you can't use the bridge next to it for that. Not yet, anyway. If they're having to escort cars across that bridge in small numbers, the engineers know it's far too unstable as of now to bear the weight of even one crane capable of lifting those cars. Large enough boats fitted with cranes might could do it--if Russia can get them there without UKR using them as missile target practice.

I wouldn't be surprised if their only recourse is to get those cars off the rails by moving them on the bridge to whatever the shortest distance to land is. We're talking movement of one car at a time, in inches at a time, to make sure the entire bridge doesn't collapse from either the weight or the vibration, and that is one long train. That would be an excruciating process.

IOW: This is not a mess that can be cleaned up in a day or two. It will probably take several weeks, at a minimum, to get the rail bridge running at full capacity again.