Ed, It looks like you might be in for some rough weather, from that tropical storm. Will your railroad take certain precautions? I heard in strong wind storms boxcars are like Mobile Homes in a tornado. Do they move there empty rolling stock to a inland yard? Do you have to work in such a storm? Will dispatch announce severe weather warnings to train crews? Do all the railroads have a severe weather policy?
TIM A
Yes, Ed please stay safe during the storm. I heard its a doozie all the way up in Montreal so please stay safe.
Hey Ed, Maybe you could convince Misery to point his pie hole to the south and talk that unsafe 'ol storm into going on an around the US tour for crossing safety. (Actually, I don’t guess that’s a good idea. It’s got enough wind as it is.) But for real, Ed, don’t forget to batten down the hatches!
Ed, you are always telling everybody to “stay frosty” but you my friend, stay safe.
batten down the hatches and chain em to the rails. stay safe and keep your feet dry.
marty
ed stay safe.
joe
Yes I forgot to tell you to play it safe. It’s weather like this that sick day’s were made for.
TIM A
take it from someone who has been thru a few of these huricans and tropical storms. he wont have anything to worry about. box cars wont come off the tracks and the engine will be a safe place to be. but there is policies in place that if it is to dangerous to work such as severe lighting ( cloud to ground) huricanes they post pone work. ed will tell you also that he wont be in harms way either. but if it does hiit head on he may not be on here til the power is back on.
The boys up here in KY are keeping you in our thoughts. Stay safe.
Brian (KY)
Trains arn’t safe in Mn. [8)]
My dad has seen a tornado lift a engine clean off the rails and turn it around.
It didn’t get set back down on the rails, It ended up on it’s side.
Just a few days ago a tornado pulled a full grown maple tree out of the ground and it was slowly rotating up towards the top of the tornado. A full grown maple can be 4 or more feet across at the trunk.
In an engine Ed may be safe but he could go for an unexpected ride “fast”
I had a friend that was on a barge in the delta when that hurricane made land in the early 70s I can’t remeber the name of it but it was the most devestating one that came through.
He said His barge went inland because of the tide surge and than they watched as trees shot by them like arrows. He said they were BIG trees.
Well I too say, stay safe Ed.
Sooblue
I just hope Ed’s with his family. The engine may not get blown away, but other things could very easily get blown into it (we haven’t had any hurricanes in Illinois, but there have been winds strong enough to topple intermodal containers). And not knowing the lay of the land at Ed’s yard, it’s hard to say what a foot or so of rain would do to it.
We’ll all be anxious to know how you fared, Ed!
First off, wow, and thanks to all of you for your concern.
Yes, Tim, hurricanes can tip over a empty covered hopper, and it will blow them out of the tracks if you dont have enough handbrakes tied. When tropical storm Allison hit three years ago, it flooded the city, and the yard, over 6 inches above the rail. We spent most of my shift playing catch on lose cars. Yes, I will have to work in it, did so then. But if the rain gets so bad we cant see, or lightning starts to hit in the yard, we go inside, or get in the motor. And I dont work in hail, period. If we get hit as bad as it seems, my jobs will be mostly sitting there, making sure nothing rolls out of the yard tracks, and switching the important trains, like the phillips and dow plastic trains, but mostly just to keep the yard safe.
Thats the not so fun side of railroading no one ever writes about. Trains dont wait for good weather, so neither can we. If it floods, we have to walk in front of the train, checking the rail. In the end, it really depends on the crew, if we decide we cant work safely, no one is going to force us to go out and switch. But we have to show up, if we can. And if we feel like we can do the job, no one is going to stop us either. What we dont get done today, will be waiting for us tomorrow, so…
But again, Thanks to you all, and yes, joe, tell matt I will stay soggy but safe.
Ed
Hey Ed. Guess you weathered the storm ok since you were just on here… Hope you didn’t get too wet.
Nice photo on your profile. Somehow, in my minds eye, I just didn’t picture you with a beard and moustache. Had the hair color figured about right though.
Stay safe and take care.
Len
ED!!! You dog you - your picture winked at me when I went to your profile!!!
Sounds like you might miss the hizzacane - hope so!
Take care my friend
Jen
You haft to remeber that a tornado in a direct hit will toppel anything. intermodel is nothing but empty or loaded trailers. very easy to lose them. but railcars are differant. Ed the rule is here if the water is over the rail I think 6 inches we dont move a engine thru it. could be devestating for the traction motors. its really the engineers call. ill plow thru snow but i wont do flood waters.
Well, Port O Connor is not the place to be this morning. We have had about 4 to 6 inches of rain in Houston, lots of wind damage, but it should be all over by this evening. And your right, Wabash, but I think its 4" over the rail. If my engineer says he dosnt think its safe to go on, we dont move.
Tim, the big problem here is like wabash said, you can flood the traction motors, and because they are D/C motors, wet on the inside shorts them out, very expensive boo-boo. A/C motors can handle the wet better. The other problem is you cant see a washout, all it takes is four or five ties to have the ballast washed out from under one side, and you can get the train ont the ground, not what you want to do even on a sunny day, much less in a hurricane, makes the MOW guys really really mad at you, because they have to come out inthe rain.
Lucky me, I have mon and tues off, so I dont have to worry about it, but I will have to work my keister off tomorrow, to make up for what didnt get done today.
Stay Frosty,
Ed
Ed,
Congratulations on being promoted to 4 stars!!
if the conditions are just right empty trailers have been know to blow off on the old nyc(now ns) bridge near port clinton ohio.It goes right over sandusky bay.
stay safe
joe
ed matt says wear rubber boots.
This may seem like a dumb question. (I have alway’s wonderd about this) Because of the wind risk, is it safer to leave the doors on the empty boxcars open?
TIM A
That’s a good question. Would it be better or worse? The only reason I wonder ‘worse’ is thinking along the lines of a box kite. Hopefully someone knows.