Norfolk Southern’s website is reporting freight delays up to 2-3 days and Amtrak has canceled trains including Acela service. I didn’t think snow had this much affect on railroads. I thought they could plow through the snow easily. Most of the Northern railroads equip the locomotives with plows. Is it because they are depending on the trucks to make their trips to the the terminals and boxcar loading facilities? I thought one of the railroads’ biggest advantages was making it through treacherous weather conditions.
Winter storms just screw up everything. The Federal Government is basically “Closed” on Monday. (More snow please!)
True story: I’m working this contract job in downtown Chicago. I’m getting on Metra at Lake Villa, IL… It’s still pitch dark in the morning and still snowing after about a foot has come down… Metra’s doing OK, but as I pull in to the parking lot a guy gets dropped off from a car, pulls his coat up over his head, and walks straight in to the side of my moving car. I was doing about 5 MPH in the snow.
I stop and look at him in the rear view. He’s standing there looking at me. So he’s not down. I park the car properly and walk back to find him. He’s gone by then. I never did find him or hear anything about the incident. That’s the kind of stuff that happens in a winter storm.
A foot 'O snow will screw up just about anything, including a railroad. Heck Fire, Eurotunnel is shut down. If it’s a usual thing they can prepare for it, as the UP does over Donner. But if it’s a once a year thing, they’ve just got to throw people at the problem and work through it. Switches need to be cleaned. The snow gets in to equipment in places nobody ever thought snow could get in to equipment. It’s just part of life. It’s the weather, and ain’t nobody can do anything about it.
the trains make with no problem that not what has trains delayed see before you can run trains crews haft to get there to run the trains
There are so many things that go on. Yes, crews have to get to work first. Plans have to be in place on how to deal with weather. Quick storm catches by surprise. Location that may see an inch of snow once every ten years or be a place that sees an inch of snow every half hour after Oct. 15. Back when there were shorter trains…both freight and passenger…there were also more frequent movements, thus more likely clearer track. Local interlocking towers and stations would have “crews” available to keep track and switches clear, even if it were only the maintainer and his helper; yes there were five or ten mile district track gangs, too. If things were really bad, there was always the plow or spreader even if it had to come from a different division. The mail had to get through, thus the passengers benefited by the passenger train getting through, and the commuter could get to work, and while you’re at it, you might as well run the manifest or merchadise or coal train, too. A lot has changed.
Forgot about crews. You’d think that the companies would ask them to come in before the storm hit and just wait till it’s time to go out to the train, or is that a violation of the strict 10 hour shift rule?
OK… anyone among the fans out there want to come out and see what it’s really like trying to keep an interlocking clear and running in this weather? Could sure use some help…
One or two switches is more than enough for me. And we managed to dodge the bullet on this year’s Polar Express trains - no major snowfall. I do have a better appreciation of what it takes to keep trains running, though, after having to deal with storms in past years.
On the other hands, frozen flangeways notwithstanding, it is kind of fun to bust drifts and plowed snow at crossings with the locomotive… [:D]
That is quite true!! Seen a few just winding the locomotive up to do just that!!
So long as there are no switches in a trains route that have to have their position changed for the train to complete it’s route, a foot or two of snow is not much of a impediment. But, once a switch needs to have it’s position changed another reality is entered. Switches become snow packed and frozen and become very difficult to restore to a working condition. There is only one thing that keeps railroad operating in such conditions…OVERWHELMING MANPOWER to use the latest technology in brooms and shovel to clean out said switches. The one thing today’s Class I carriers do not possess is OVERWHELMING MANPOWER. A switch once cleaned, generally won’t stay clean…especially during the period when it is still snowing. Even after the snow stops, the snow blown around by the movement of trains will pack into the switch and cause it not to work.
Switch Heaters are expensive, and are not in place on all switches. Even when they are in place they may not be of a type that automatically turns on and must be started by maintenance workers, hopefully before the storm limits their access to the switch location. Of course, like any other thing that is made by man, switch heaters can fail from mechanical or electrical issues, the propane fueled variety can run out of fuel.
In terminal areas there is a different problem, since men are expected to be able to walk up and down tracks…the snow must be physically removed from the yard area…if you remove the snow it must have someplace else to be deposited.
Railroads and their operations are not immune to blizzards.
However, it was nice to hear on our local news, after all of the reports of airline delays, etc., that "Amtrak service [in the Northeast, I assume] is back to normal. Then they followed that up with the deaths the storm has caused. [:(]
I’m a little worried about what we’ll find in our yard after a long holiday shutdown. The current plan is for all shifts to be off both on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So, presumably, the snow due Wednesday night will make things nasty for the last couple of shifts to work, and they’ll go the distance, until 10:30 on Christmas Eve. By that time, the snow and ice are expected to change to rain (and lots of it), before it changes back to snow sometime Friday. By Saturday morning I’ll be one of the guys who helps open up the place, with ice and snow in the switch points (you don’t want to keep the calrods on in the rain, so the heaters won’t be working), and some cars in the receiving yard literally frozen to the rails.
When our power switches freeze, there are problems–we need a positive light indication in both locations (on our panel in the tower and by the switch machine) to be assured that the switch has fully thrown. If something in the points prevents it from throwing, it will often throw back to its previous position. So our signal maintainers, highly trained in electronics as they are, often have to resort to brooms to assist the switch heaters.
Places to walk–not much of a worry, at our end of the yard. The pin-pulling area on top of the hump is kept shoveled and salted by both the private contractors and the employees themselves, as needed. Salt is one thing we have plenty of. Because our yard is also the site of a major intermodal ramp, our private contractor (Rossi–special shout-out for them!) keeps all of the fire roads and parking areas (including ours!) wide open. And yes, the snow has to go somewhere–usually into the drainage ditches and retention ponds. The ditch flowing from the top of the hump to the lower towers will becom
Seeing some of the snow pictures gives me a greater appreciation of the hard work railroaders do. GREAT JOB!!