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So, a third of the train would be about 45 cars.  The other reference says 20 cars.  It looks like the derailment began very close to the bridge.   <o:p></o:p> Some have suggested that the 31 derailed cars piled up on the bridge, and then the extreme weight of all those cars collapsed the bridge.   <o:p></o:p> I can see a scenario where a sun kink developed approaching the bridge as the train passed over that spot.  Then when the kink became offset enough (say 6-8 feet of offset), it derailed the train.  With the train derailing after deviating from the centerline, the leading car of the derailment might have simply snagged the bridge and knocked it down as the train was rolling across it.   I don’t know if that bridge had raised girders that could have snagged the first car to derail.   <o:p></o:p> But if the first couple of derailing cars snagged the bridge girder and knocked down the bridge, then the following cars would have dropped into the chasm and jammed it full of tightly packed cars as appears to be the case.  <o:p></o:p> In the other scenario of 31 cars piling up on the bridge and collapsing it by their weight, I don’t see it very likely that 31 cars would pile up in compact heap on top of the standing bridge.  With the bridge being up in the air, derailing cars would have tended to fall away and spread out more.   <o:p></o:p> So my guess is that the beginning of the derailment knocked down the bridge and then the following 25-30 cars fell into the hole where they were confined, and thus could be compacted tightly together by the momentum of the following cars that did not derail.  <o:p></o:p> In one of the photos, I see part of the bridge deck displaced out to the side, which would be indicative of the deck being shoved ahead and buckled by being snagged by the derailed cars.  <o:p></o:p> Even if the girders were not raised with ends that could have snagged the cars, the first cars to derail might have simply dug into the roadbed, and bulldozed through the concrete abutment, running directly into the end of the bridge deck, shoving it ahead, and knocking it off its supports.
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