My wife being from lousiana has never really seen snow. Yesterday and last night we recieved our first snow in illinois, and today my wife had a doctors appointment so we took out to go get gas and I was going to see if she could handle it. So we get in the car and we are going down the street and all of a sudden she says, “Our Power steering is out, BABE OUR POWER STEERING IS OUT!” I say no babe its just the ice now becareful. But she insists its the power steering…not twenty seconds later she hit a nice big patch of ice and decided instead of light braking and cautious steering to violently push on the brakes and jerk the steering wheel around…needless to say she sent the car right into the ditch, to which i could not get it out. She didnt just slide into the ditch easily she put the car face first right into it, the back end touching the top of the hill and the front end touching the up part of the other side! She didnt even get a half a mile from home hehe. So a ride from a good man back to the house and a call to the tow man led to throwing away $75 and a walk back to the car in the snow and ice for me 
But 'Tis the season to be jolly so HAHAHAHA
i live in michigan now, so i’m gunna have like 49 weeks a year for model railroading (ie, inside), but i grew up in north carolina.
we (southerners) start cancelling events when the tv PREDICTS snow.
calvin.
I’d order anti-lock brakes on your next car…
brakes didnt lock up, its just they dont work to well on ice it was quite funny none the less, she started crying and all i could do was laugh while trying to assure her it was ok and it happens to everyone hehe
Two questions:
- Are you sadistic?
- What does this have to do with trains?
i’ve had my license for a little over a year now. i’ve never had a big accident. just rear ended a car. didn’t do any damage and we both left. i live in Wisconsin by the way. we probably had 6-8 inches 2 weekends ago. ice was under the snow. 30MPH winds. i just got a new car and i still haven’t done anything stupid with it. isn’t that sad being in high school with a new car and not whipping doughnuts in the first snow. anyways it does happen to almost everyone. no biggie really unless there is extensive damage.
the best thing is seeing people in the south react to snow. no offense to people down in Texas or any of those states but when you get 1/2 inch of snow you DO NOT need a snowplow on the front of your truck or need to be throwing salt on the roads. that is nothing compared to like 3 inches in an hour. also when it gets to be about 35-40 degrees that isn’t cold. like -10 degrees is cold. although the last few winters it hasn’t even been that cold. and we haven’t gotten hardly any snow. i think 2 years ago on opening deer hunting weekend it was like 70 or something. snowmobile trails didn’t open last year either. kind of sucks for the outdoorsman.
oh well just tell your wife it isn’t that bad. she’ll get used to it eventually. hopefully no more ditches though. the costs will add up.
first snow in Illinois now? wow. i thought what came through here 2 weeks ago hit Illinois to.
Hey Hawks, At least us “people in the south” don’t freeze our a**es off five months out of
the year. BTW I wore shorts today HA HA Dave
I’m dreaming of a GREEN Christmas. The closest thing we have to snow is our beautiful
white beaches.
What helped me learn to drive on ice was I went to a large parking lot at a shopping center and practicing steering and stopping on the ice there.We just received our first big snow today in Indiana.
I am a former Driver with 15 years on the road. There are 2 pictures which I have in my hand showing a Black Honda Accord skidding out of the left lane of I 25 approx mm12 in Wy near Sheridan across my front and into the field with 4 feet of drifted snow.
I was able to do maybe 12 mph on split ice and snow and this car was about 50 or so. Needless to say being 10 miles from anything made by man it was a wait for a tow truck.
This has nothing to do with trains, but on snow and ice stay home if need be. If it can wait another day then wait. Enjoy the model kits, spouse, children whatever you been missing with the busy life.
Keep in mind that if the truckers are pulling over and the trains laying over in town during bad weather bets are on that you can too. I have seen too much needless waste thru damage, loss of life and injury simply because of a unnecessary trip to the store.
I also wanted to add that wind and cold combine to be a real killer. I have seen temps of -50 in the Dakotas with a 50 mph wind that means a windchill of about -80 How cold is -80? it will freeze lungs in 10 minutes and kill. Children cannot be out in -60 or below, they do not have sufficient metabolism to survive. Frostbite any exposed skin in 5 and kill anyone in 20 minutes regardless of covering. Steaming coffee that is boiling hot turns ice in approx 1 minute and 20 sec.
Carry blankets, food and water. (Water will increase your body heat) And leave plans with a trusted person when you travel any distance. And if you dont need it right now (a medical emergency etc) dont go out. Remember that if it is hard to walk on, chances are it is difficult to drive on as well.
Enjoy your trains and best of luck!
Nope, you must be in Northern Wisconsin , because this was the first snow to hit Northern illinois (I’m literaly less than 30 minutes from the border). we didn’t even get hit hard, had maybe 1" last night. it was all gone by this afternoon.
Jay.
@ndbprr - no im not sadistic, she was only going like 20mph so we hit real soft, no damage whatsoever but our little corolla isnt good off road
and it has nothign to do with railroading i just thought it was a funny story and i wanted to share it with everybody. Lighten up
[:0]Glad you two are okay. I could have been much worse.
BTW, guys: a bit of humor here and there never killed anyone. Relax already. When topics start showing up about whose SUV is bigger and better, THEN you’ll have reason to complain!
Yeah, but I also don’t want to see this turn into a cutesy litle chat board. I come here to read about model railroading, not just any funny topic. And it wasn’t all that funny, either. I can also find lots of other sources on winter dirving preparedness, for that matter.
…
i’m not above Highway 8. that is where the hillbillies live. no offense to anyone if the live in WI above Highway 8. i live mayb 40-50 miles direct west of Minneapolis/St. Paul. We got hit hard 2 weeks ago. before that probably 1-2 weeks prior to that we got hit during the day but that was gone in 2 days. earlier this week what we got 2 weeks ago has been melting. but yesterday and today its been under freezing so its staying. maybe have 1/2" if that now.
“Hey Hawks, At least us “people in the south” don’t freeze our a**es off five months out of
the year. BTW I wore shorts today HA HA Dave”
i’d gladly take 5 months of snow and cold than 12 months of severe weather and rain. rain is cool and all but i don’t think i’d like living in a place where almost once a week you have torandoe warnings it seems like. thats alright. although i don’t where shorts outside i still where them.
i’m not being rude at all. just stating my opinion. but seriously though i’d much rather have snow for 4-5 months than have rain year round. need a change now and then.
It’s that dern black ice that gets in the way every time.
When it snows in Nashville it’s time to run out to Kroger and buy out all the milk & bread. Be sure to have a supply of chili & cornbread mix on hand. Mix a batch of cornbread mix & pour it on top of the chili bake it 30 min keep warm all nite
Be safe & have a happy holiday y’all!