do thunderstorms affect railways and do they have any rules crews must follow during one. I just thought about it since one passed through here this morning.rambo1…
Lightning can affect signal systems, but lightning arrestors built into the circuitry normally prevent any damage. It is likely even less of a concern now the old above ground wiring has mostly been superseded.
Thunderstorms may also create a flash flood. If a location has a reputation for problems, local forces may go out to inspect it, or trains advised to approach prepared to stop.
And of course, similar to golfing or boating, track forces won’t want to be outside on an exposed fill where they will be the highest point.
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thanks interesting to know all this. rambo1
but what about if tornado warnings are posted by the weather office?
The routine, brief afternoon T’storm is nothing to be concerned about, except if personnel are outside on the property. If lightning is observed, or thunder heard local division instructions are for employees to seek shelter until the storm passes and the lightning has stopped.
SEVERE T’storms as identified by the weather service my company uses may cause Flash Flood Warnings to trains operating through specific locations identified in the warning. Warnings remain in effect until the track has been inspected by MofW after the expiration time of the warning. Warning times and locations may be changed as the weather service sees fit. Note, because T’storm are not stationary animals the updating of warning locations CAN cause ‘busy work’ for Dispatchers that must communicate the warnings to trains via official ‘Mandatory Directives’; as the same trains must be notified multiple times as the warning locations change.
Thunderstorms no problem…ear protection already required.
[;)]
Tornado watches are no big deal. Tornado warnings could be an issue, but as already alluded water is going to be the biggest issue. Usually storms that include tornados also include quite a bit of rain.
That’s not to say that tornados aren’t a threat - as witnessed by a video that’s made the rounds from a rear-facing cab camera that recorded a train being torn up by a twister.
What can be an issue from any wind event is trees (or other items) across the ROW. Had to deal with several such trees a few weeks ago after a windstorm blew through the night before. One was nearly a foot in diameter and definitely would have “left a mark” if we’d hit it at speed. As it was I got the train stopped about six feet from it.
This can be an issue in the winter, too, especially if the weather involves heavy, wet snow or icing.
I am on the telecom side of the house, and if lightning strikes one of our towers and damages the coax/waveguide or blows out a CTC or dispatch radio, that can certainly cause problems.
In the Chicago area, some Metra trains are halted if there is a Tornado Warning (not watch) for the area near the line. This seems to affect the BNSF and UP West lines primarily.
Amtrak stops trains during periods of tornado warnings. An Amtrak passenger from Arizona said the train he was on was delayed for several hours in central Illinois because of tornado warnings in the area.
As an aside to the comment about personnel operating outside. Some airports have a warning system that detects lightning strikes in the surrounding area. When triggered the system sounds a siren throughout the airport and ground workers are required to remain indoors for a minimum of 15 minutes.
Earlier this summer, a lightning strike fried a signal bungalow. It rendered a powered crossover and junction switch (for one leg of a wye) out of service for almost two weeks until they could get replacement components.
The signal bungalow, like most signal installations in my area now, has a new PTC antenna next to it. I wonder if the number of lightning strikes actually hitting something important will go up now.
Jeff
I was at the Philly airport when that happened. We were lucky enough to get into our jetway before the ground crews were pulled in. Others were not so lucky and ended up stuck in their planes for a while.
When we were taxiing in, several passengers noted flashing lights on the sides of the terminal buildings (yellow, I think). A deadhead crew in the cabin had no idea. Then, as we docked, they lights changed to blue and the crew announced the ground stop.
Amtrak is governed by the rules of the carriers they operate on. They only operate on their own rules on the lines they own. ie the NEC.
One dark and stormy night…
I was a condr on a westbound and we had just cleared a heavy thunderstorm. We met a loaded coal train starting up the ruling grade on the subdivision, who was headed towards the storm. The dispatcher came on the radio and told this train of a severe thunderstorm with high winds warning and they were to come to a stop. They asked if they could continue until the reached the top (about 2 or 3 miles) and were told they could. The dispatcher then told the Z train following us (still about 20 miles behind us) that they were to keep moving unless the winds started affecting them. We figured they stopped the coal train (less susceptible to high winds than the Z train) so it wouldn’t run into the trailers or containers blown off the “bird.”
Jeff
Amtrak does have a slow or stop order when the wind gets above 60 mph on trains with Superliner railcars. I rode SW Chief a few years ago and going through KS, I could tell we were moving very slow or stopped. It was at night and I was in my sleeper, asked the attendant the next day what was going on and he explained their rule of speed. There were tornadoes in the area too.
I know the Superliner cars sway more than the one level coach cars. So they can probably tip over more easily too if strong wind gusts hit the train moving at a faster speed.
would lightinng damage anthing in boxcars or containers?
CSXT seems to have a lot of signal problems when there are severe storms along the east coast. It’s been a problem for years. I have often wondered how a road like BNSF does when the rain hits the notoriously damp Seattle area. I never hear about problems out there. Is BNSF better prepared and do they have better signal systems to handle this situation, or are they having problems that I just don’t hear about?
Probably not. Metal containers tend to keep the lightning charge on the outside (“like” charges repel and lightning is all negative charge, so it repels itself and stays on the skin or outside of what it is traveling through).
Granted, if the current is high enough it could melt some of the container and that in turn would expose the contents to not only the hot metal but to the electrical charge.
In addition, static charges are quite unpredictable and don’t always understand that we have “Laws of Nature” that it is supposed to obey and it does whatever and goes wherever it wants! So saying that Lightning would never damage TVs in a boxcar would be in error, but to say it probably would not damage them is closer to the truth.