summer trackside fires - a perennial steam train problem

The evidence of a trackside grass fire caused by dropped hot coals is clear in this picture of an Ab-hauled passenger train from Christchurch to Picton in the mid 1950s.  The setting is the combined rail (top deck) and road (bottom deck) bridge at the Awatere River in Marlborough.  A parallel road bridge was only built a few years ago.  The Marlborough region, being on the South Island East Coast, gets very dry in summer.

For literally hundreds of scenes like this, see the book New Zealand 1950s Steam in Colour