This is my first post, and honestly the only reason why I joined lol! I couldn’t find the answer anywhere, and when I found this site, I thought “hey, maybe these knowledgeable ppl know something!”. So here I am. [:)] (I hope I’m posting in the right section!)
My neighbor was wondering about this. He wanted to know if they ever got struck, and if so, what does it do to the train? Does it totally fry the trains’ electronics, or is the engine insulated against it somehow? How far does the lightning travel before it “gets off”?? Any other little unknown facts about lightning and railway tracks that you’d care to share? Thanks!
Electrified railroads have had problems with the catenary being struck by lightning - is a pretty common occurence.
Railroad signalling systems are usually designed to take a lightning strike as well, track circuit relays are built with non-sticking contacts. The lighning currents could do funny things to cab signals on locomotives, but I doubt if a train would care much unless it got a direct hit.
Catenaries can be a problem that way. But the tracks themselves are really solidly grounded, so even if lightning did strike the track, the current would be dissipated in the surrounding ground very very quickly. Can’t see that there’d be a problem. Tracks are also a rather unlikely target – lightning ‘prefers’ to jump from prominent higher places (like isolated trees, tips of golf umbrellas, and the like!) or sharp corners, and tracks don’t qualify on either count.
To second Kozzie’s sentiment…Welcome to the Forum.
There is no reason that lightening would not strike a locomotive or rail cars. Grounding would be, I guess a fairly efficient accomplishment; steel wheels to rails, and all. I would suspect that the electronics and electrical components would take a beating, though from lots of voltage passing through.
[#offtopic]About eight years ago, a driver for the company I worked for was driving an FLD [ lots of chrome appointments] Freightliner, and at the point of crossing a bridge [Wolf R. on I-40 at Memphis] a bolt of lightening hit his radiator cowl, and fried everything electrical on the vehicle. whch of course, caused the truck to coast to a stop, snarling traffic there. The driver was not hurt, albeit, he was a couple of shades lighter and possessing of a much deeper religious conviction. He is one of the four drivers who star in the OperationLifesaver video, “Your Liscense or Your Life.”
I asked this question many years ago and got a lot of good information. So stay tuned and they will weigh in as soon as they either get off work or find the posting. Meanwhile, I remember they said that switches can be hit and fried which will cause problems.
Rarely is the rail the highest - most conductive point around and thus would be much less likely to be hit by lightening. On non-electrified rail lines, signals would be the most common target. Mountain summits, where the rail is highest, are mot often in a cut or tunnel so natural targets would be more likely. The only location where the rail might be the highest point would be on long bridges, but even then the bridge structure is a more likely target than the rail. I remember that there has been a thread on lighting hitting locomotives. Use the search function.
Lightning does occasionally strike rail. It usually doesn’t affect much or do much damage. It can set off crossing gates though. A friend of mine is an engineer with CSX and had lightning strike the second engine of his consist. It fried just about all the electronics and melted relay bank into a big blob of copper according to him.
The whole point of lighting is grounding the atmospheric charge . So when the lighting lits the rails, like any other object tied to the ground, it gets grounded. It’s not like you have thousands of amps flowing through the length of the rail for kilometers. There is some movement of charge in a lot of the rail, but the current is not flowing through it as if it was a conduit, but rather passes through the “epicenter” into the ground, and probably affects the surrounding rail, and causes some charge flow. Because the potential difference is not horisontal but vertical, therefore the rail doesn’t turn into a big power cable.
What could damage the locomotive is the electric field generated around the place.
The field would probably cause current in many of unshielded curcuits and fry them.
A common misconception is that railroad tracks are grounded , this is not the case !! I have been in railroad shops 30 plus miles from a thunder storm and still saw the resulting flash INSIDE the locomotive shop !! This is especially hard on electric power tools that are grounded , You don’t want to be drilling on a locomotive when lightning strikes. Lets use the electric railroad as an example, if the track was thouroughly grounded where would the return current go ? Through the ground yes? Bad for water pipes, underground phone lines etc…Railroad signal systems use Earth grounds . In that case the track has a fairly good ground . Otherwise , don’t bank on it ! remember the rail is sitting on the WOODEN ties . Not sure what the qualitys of concrete ties are.
Good rule of thumb is stay away from the rail as much as possible during lightning , lightning will prefer your ankle as a path to ground . I have seen ligtning strike brooms stuck in the ground instead of a nice steel switchstand. I have seen the result of a lightning strike on a locomotive , not much to see , but they sure do some strange things . I have seen people write on this ofrum about being on a locomotive as it was struck by lightning . I recall one chap saying that he got a ground relay trip and that was about it . That was probably the last time that ground relay will ever work . Lightning is very hard on semiconductors !
Thanks everyone! I’ll have to tell my neighbor all this stuff! I was saying the same thing about the tracks not being that “attractive” to lightning, b/c they are as close to the ground as you can get, really. And why would the lightning hit them when, chances are, there are trees or houses, or elevators or something taller and bigger than the tracks? But you know, you have to have some difficult questions in life! lol
Lightening strikes have minds of their own and under particular circumstance can damage ANYTHING, ANYWHERE, ANYTIME. While railroads take almost all known precautions to protect their equipment, it all can be damaged. As railroads switch their signaling systems more and more to electronic devices that operate on milivolts and minimal amperages the potential to be damaged by lightning strikes with bolts containing many thousands of volts and amperes of current is increasing, despite all the protection efforts that are implemented.
When it comes to dealing with lightning there is no fool proof protection.
Exactly, BaltACD. Lightning is really odd stuff. The voltages are really staggering…Millions and Millions of volts. I’ve seen the result of a lightning hit in the mountains before…a good strike will actually melt a small section of rock where it strikes.
Tried to become a lightning conductor once, myself…never gotten below timberline faster than that! That’s another story, though…
Hmmm Thats odd When I went to find the Lightning thread that i started a while back I couldn’t get the search to find it. But anyway, I asked this a while back (Actually did it just to shw off my cool Lightning Photo, Which by the way, won irst Place at the 2006 Sweetwater County Fair) Everyone came back with some really good answers, A couple wish I could rmember and repost here, but alas i can’t find the stupid thing
Back in the early 1970’s, my dad would take me with him when he got called out to repair signals. There were certain things he wouldn’t do when it was lightning. He wouldn’t climb a signal tower, work on a bridge, or walk the tracks to look for a broken bond wire or bad insulated joint until the lightning had passed.
Yes they do
on teh Mount Washington Cog Railway or brakeman stated he seen lightening striking the tracks when they were ascending
not a pleasant
thought
I am the guy who had it hit the train…not the locomotive directly, but the car behind the MU…did it twice in a matter of minutes.
Made every hair on my arm and neck stand up!
All it did was trip the ground relay…engineer reset it, on we went.
Bang, got tagged again…reset…and the radio was gone, along with the lights in the control stand and the cab lights in the second unit.
I live about a block from the old Forth Worth and , now BNSF’s main, Forth Worth to , and was out trying to shoot some evening rainy weather artsy photos, got to see lighting streak down the CTW for over a mile…St Elmo’s fire, or ball lighting?
Just a white blue flash, almost a strobe effect, flicking down the top of the rail, accompanied by the smell of burnt wire or very hot metal.
Pretty amazing, and pretty good at convincing me I needed to be back at home instead!