Shortly after sunset in the town of Richmond, TX, a westbound UP empty rock train crosses over the Brazos river on UP's Glidden Sub. A ET44AC and an SD70ACe-T4 are two of the three units powering the westbound.
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Posted By Chris Parma On Friday, January 30, 2026 At 1:50:53 AM (PT)
Great shot! This also gives a really good look at the bridge's unique piers.
The concrete & steel piers in the distance used to be stone columns original to the bridge, like the pier underneath the nose of the lead locomotive. But in Summer 2016, record floods caused those far two piers to fail and sink down about 6 feet (each failure happened about a month apart, so the bridge had to close twice for emergency repairs). UP crews worked around the clock for about 3 weeks to drive new pilings for each pier, and they had to do it with the river's water level only about 10 ft below the deck of the bridge!
