Riding in a Thunderstorm

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2008 coming EB from Seattle, we were in a storm so bad the sleeper we were in began to leak. Lucky for us there was a roomette open in the next car. It was roomette # 10 and the last one on the train when we left Seattle. I was a little suspicious as it was a low bucket price booked a the last minute in Seattle just before boarding. I think someone knew about the leak but thought it might not rain and Amtrak could use the money. It all worked out O K though. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
Last spring the Mrs. and I got breakfast on the SWC do the heavy thunderstorms the SWC was running late. That is the only tail I can tell. I’m all for free food.
 
So would a tornado still sound like a train if you are already riding on a train?
I'm not sure. In this story the engineer didn't notice the tornado until it hit the Empire Builder. But I guess there is a lot of noise in steam locomotives.

Of course, now there's much better forecasting (though the small tornado that hit Minneapolis on Thursday came without any warning), but I'd imagine that the Superliners would be more vulnerable to side winds than single-level heavy-weight equipment was.
"In this story the engineer didn't notice the tornado until it hit the Empire Builder. But I guess there is a lot of noise in steam locomotives."

Until I clicked on the link I thought it was going to be a story about Amtrak using a steam engine. :D
 
in 2008 riding on the texas eagle the storm was so bad UP had us sit still on the tracks until it eased up for safety concerns.
Same thing happened on the SWC in June of '07 north of Albuquerque....winds were so high in the thunderstorm that they stopped us dead on the tracks as we watched the storm move from west to east in front of us. Apparently, Amtrak has some kind of high wind limit with the Superliners and won't allow them to travel through winds higher than a certain speed.
 
in 2008 riding on the texas eagle the storm was so bad UP had us sit still on the tracks until it eased up for safety concerns.
Same thing happened on the SWC in June of '07 north of Albuquerque....winds were so high in the thunderstorm that they stopped us dead on the tracks as we watched the storm move from west to east in front of us. Apparently, Amtrak has some kind of high wind limit with the Superliners and won't allow them to travel through winds higher than a certain speed.
Same here. On the SWC in March of this year, they had us stop due to high winds.
 
The sstop for high winds ay have been a railroad decision rather than an Amtrak decision. Several (most?) railroad companies have a private weather forcasting service to give very specific forcasts of problems that can affect their operations.l Generally they have rules relating to stopping of various forms of traffic due to winds or other issues. That is, double stacks are far more subject to being blown over than loaded coal trains, and for that matter empty coal trains are far more subject to being blown over than loaded ones.
 
Last week a friend of mine sent me a video of a freight train in a tornado that derailed.

The camera seemed to be on freight car looking rearward at the rest of the consist.

The car just behind the camera and about the next six or so derailed.

No idea where it came from or anything.
 
Last week a friend of mine sent me a video of a freight train in a tornado that derailed.The camera seemed to be on freight car looking rearward at the rest of the consist.

The car just behind the camera and about the next six or so derailed.

No idea where it came from or anything.

You can see this on Youtube. Just do a search for it.
 
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