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Storms strand Amtrak’s Cardinal in West Virginia
A couple years ago my wife and I rode the Cardinal from Chicago to Charlottesville. Observing the right-of-way out the rear door in heavily-wooded, mountainous West Virginia, I was surprised at the abundance of fallen tree limbs just a few feet from the tracks. As this line clings to hillsides much of the way, I remember thinking that it wouldn’t take much of a storm to put a lot of debris on the tracks. That storm has now happened. Another railfan onboard said the CSX is notorious for not proactively clearing debris near their right-of-way.
This was a bad storm as it rolled through central Ohio last Friday afternoon. Wind gusts over 70 mph here, and numerous trees and power lines down everywhere.
I’m sure the railroad employees as well as everyone else affected by the storm will be glad when the power is back on!
Bad storm glad all on board are alright and no matter how hard you try to clean trackside in that area there are going to be treelimbs falling in that area.
At least Amtrak had the decency this time to hold the train at a station, which is staffed. They were fortunate not to be stranded along the New River gorge. It could have brought “Deliverance” to life.
The actual route of this train is from NY Penn Station to Chicago, operates tri-weekly.
I rode the Cardinal a few months ago. The Amtrak employees were all great. They were very friendly and professional.