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Twin Cities light rail line shut down by ice storm
If an iced wire shut down light rail in Minnesota, rumors of impending doom just gained weight.
Good Grief! If the Twin-Cities can’t figure out how to railroad in an ice storm----like run very frquent cars with multiple pantographs up all during the icing period…
While drowsing on the Mainstreeter at about 6 AM in a heavy Cascades snow west of Ellensburg in '64, I caught dim flickering blue white light getting brighter ahead of us.
We caught up with and then overtook a 4 unit Milw box-moter powered frt and by the time we were along side, the engine with all 'graphs up was arcing, as in welding, enough to generate daylight…absolutey stunning and running on a severely iced wire…4 pantographs all throwing a major light show on the east slopes of Snoqualmie and Stampede Passes. No ambient or city light, heavy snow, more than an hour to sunrise…
'cept for two women, my most memorable time in my military period.
This is Minnesota, not Florida. You mean to tell me they can’t operate a train to function in normal Minnesota weather? What is going to happen when the extreme weather hits this July and their precious train gets hit with 4 feet of snow due to global warming as predicted by the believers? Worthless piece of junk. I can park my pickup truck outside for 4 weeks, covered in ice, snow, and whatever else, in January, in Wisconsin, next to a herd of cows belching up greenhouse gas, and it functions as intended. Now here is how to solve the problem. See that stick thingy sticking up in the air against the wire? Bounce it up and down a few times. That tends to knock the ice off the wires. This is what happens when idiot socialists take over the country. Can’t do anything for themselves.
Time to make some popcorn while waiting for even more comments exclaiming how the world is ending and bazillions more should be spent to reduce closures by one day per 3,650 days.
“…the first time the line has been shut down due to weather since it debuted in 2004.”
A very good record which seems to indicate a well run operation. Despite the obligatory troll-rant, nothing said that any of the cars failed to start. There will always be times when weather will overcome event the best planned and run system. Even the PRR’s GG1’s were almost all disabled in a single snowstorm.
It might not have helped with this much ice on the overhead, but I wonder if these Minneapolis LRVs are equipped with sleet cutters. For those not familiar with them, they look like an extra pantograph and are designed to scrape sleet from the contact wire.
Goosie, are you sure you aren’t producing the flatuence and not the cows?
The “all weather mode” indeed!!
Wow. Here I am in Pisa Italy and glad I am not at home in Saint Paul mn… course there it probably was only raining. They have plans for icing, but run very conserably and were afraid to do the obvious. Next time they will do better.