i saw a program on the tele about storm chasers.during the show they showed a couple of trains in the middle of twisters. what do railroads do if a train is headed into a tornado? tie it down? then what does the crew do?i tried to get an e mail for doug harrop but i guess he does not believe in this. so anybody have any answers? thanx
First thing is to stop the train if a tornado WARNING is issued for the area, preferably not blocking any streets.
Second thing is to grab the camera, just in case.
Actually, a locomotive cab is one of the safest places to be in a tornado. The walls are fairly thick to stop flying debris, althought the glass is problematic. The best spot to avoid flying debris is down in the nose in the toilet. In addition, the locomotive is so heavy even a F5 tornado will not hurt it. And even if by some fluke the locomotive does take a direct hit, the absolute worst it will do is tip it over.
The freight cars are another matter. An empty could quite easily be blown off the tracks (hence the need to stop the train). And I would be concerned about flying debris puncturing a tank of hazmat.
I think it’s one of those things that’s really low on the “what are the odds” scale. Only a fraction of the hundreds of tornados that occur every year have significant interface with people.
The cars (especially empties) are probably going to scatter in the wind (depending on the wind - they still weigh upwards of , what, 50 tons empty) but I’d imagine a locomotive is pretty well going to stand it’s ground. If I were on a locomotive, I’d probably do my best to tie the train down and hope we didn’t cross paths with the funnel. If we did, I’d head for the built in safe room (the nose). Toilet notwithstanding, the nose, especially the wide cabs, is built to deal with a collision, so I’d imagine it could handle the wind. On the odd chance the locomotive was tipped over, it’s not like it’ll get rolled along the ground…
Zardoz has a point on the glass, although the glazing in locomotives is designed to deal with thrown objects, so you’d be safer a little longer than if you were behind regular glass.
Probably a greater danger is the debris that may appear on the tracks in front of a still-moving train, which event may occur even a distance away from the actual vortex. While you’re watching those storm chaser shows, look closely at some of the debris that’s floating through the air. I’ve seen them highlight cars and pickups, hundreds of feet off the ground…
Look up my web site & go to the gallery Tornado which occurred in Nebraska in May 2005 & you have your anwser as to what the UPRR was at least doing with tornados in the area. It happen about 10 miles east of Grand Island Neb [:)]