Angellala Rail Bridge, Railway bridge in Sommariva, Australia.
Angellala Rail Bridge was a heritage-listed railway bridge over Angellala Creek on the Roma-Cunnamulla line in Sommariva, Queensland. Designed by Henry Charles Stanley, it had seven 36-foot steel plate girder spans and a 1,740-foot timber trestle approach, the longest of its kind in Queensland. The bridge was destroyed by an explosion on 5 September 2014.
Plans for the Angellala Creek crossing, 66 km east of Charleville, were prepared in 1885 under Chief Engineer Henry Charles Stanley as the western railway extension from Roma advanced; the line reached Charleville on 1 March 1888. The bridge was strengthened in 1946 for heavier C17 locomotives by halving the spans with intermediate columns, and again in 1994 with additional steel pillars for main-line diesel-electrics. It was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992 and destroyed by an ammonium nitrate explosion on 5 September 2014.
The name Angellala comes from the creek the bridge crossed; the adjacent station opened on 2 May 1910 and was worked as a crossing loop. From 1932 to 1971 a station mistress was posted there, and the site served as a watering stop, with a water tank at the Charleville end of the yard and a hydrant at the Roma end.
The railway bridge no longer exists: it was destroyed by an explosion on 5 September 2014 and was not rebuilt, while the adjacent road bridge was. A monument with interpretive signs stands at the site beside the Warrego Highway, about 30 kilometres east of Charleville, where the crossing can be viewed.
The bridge was destroyed on 5 September 2014 when a road train carrying 52 tonnes of ammonium nitrate crashed on the adjacent road bridge and caught fire. The blast, equal to 10 to 15 tonnes of TNT, was felt in Charleville 30 kilometres away. The road bridge was rebuilt; the rail bridge was not, and a monument with interpretive signs now marks the site.
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