I managed to get into Halifax yesterday (supposed to have a meeting, that didn’t happen) one day after Catagory 1 Hurricane Juan blew through. Significant damage (thousands of trees down , roofs gone, lots of sign and window damage, major wharf and waterfront damage at the harbour and unfortunately one Paramedic and one civilian were killed by falling trees).
There is still no power to most of the city, therefore CN RTC dispatch is extremely busy issuing authority orders for incoming/outgoing trains and for the various MOW crews and work trains carrying ballast to repair washouts etc.
What kind of damage did Isabel do to the rail infrastructure in the Carolinas and how long did it take to get things “back on track”?
Jeff
The power in my area was out for about a day, and my army generator proved its worth after Isabel. I noticed trees next to amtrack’s tracks stacked up, so they were probibly cleared from the main line.
Adrianspeeder
…Adrian, being from the Harrisburg area perhaps you can tell us if the overhead structure of the electric catenary is still in place on the old Pennsylvania main line…
Yeah Juan did a lot of damage in Halifax, heard some people won’t get power bakc until… next weekend
Yep, quite a mess. The link below has some pretty good (bad) pics
http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/jag/Hurricane_Pictures/
Jeff
ugh. And Halifax is a nice city… which schooner, if you know, was that you have a picture of the masts?
I understand some of the outports were really nailed…
Jamie,
Not sure of the schooners name, I believe they were visiting the city. There was a 3 masted barque, much larger, in the next slip which sustained some minor damage. Our namesake schooner, The Bluenose II was in drydock in Lunenburg and was not damaged.
Some of the coastal towns east of Halifax really got wailed. Sambro, Herring Cove, Shad bay lost complete wharfs, many smaller fishing boats and a huge amount of gear and lobster traps (lobster season starts in November)
The CN mainline (double track) from Rockingham yard around the Bedford Basin still had the North line blocked by downed power poles, trees etc. on Thursday. This line provides access to the Fairview intermodal terminal, CN’s Halifax Intermodal Terminal and Halifax Ocean Terminal. The Dartmouth sub (on the other side of the Bedford Basin connects to the Halifax AutoPort) was closed due to washouts and other damage/debris to the line and row.
Jeff
Modelcar, yes the electric catenary over the old PRR line is up and running. On the west side of the river, (Harrisburg is on the east side of the river), the catenary is up, but I know NS ain’t using it.
Amtrak runs on the east side of the river and the catenary is live, because I’ve seen those big E60s pull work trains. All the passinger trains I’ve seen are pulled by those ugly GEs, but every once in a while I see F40s.
Adrianspeeder
There is a misconception in the question. Only the Hatteras islands and the north eastern tip of NC were affected. The brunt of Isabel was felt by Hampton Roads in VA and then north westerly through the state. Here in Williamsburg, the CSX line between Richmond & the port of Newport News was blocked by trees for several days. As Trains.com reported, all Amtrack service south of DC was discontinued for several days also
Creekside.