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Winter weather disrupts Northeast rail travel
Only New York and the rest of the Northeast can turn a light dusting of snow into a major snowstorm. What a bunch of wimps. Back in the 1970’s we stacked snow as high as a two story farm house and pulled the school buses out of snow with a 30 HP tractor. OK. I admit. We cheated. We used the 3 point instead of the drawbar and filled the front end loader with all the rocks it could lift. You have to comprehend the Ferguson System in order to figure out how that worked out. Meanwhile the car ferries on Lake Michigan would get stuck in ice. The Mackinac got stuck in ice. Mayor Bilandic lost due to snow. The CTA burned up all its motors due to a lack of adequate snow plows. Counties that still had a several decades old Oshkosh would use it because the lesser plows were not designed to hammer drifts. It was the last time I found a real plow on the front of a C&NW train. We still had school because of those old snow plows. Never mind the other alternate, snowmobiles. Everybody had tire chains and a rear wheel drive American made winter beater with a trunk full of sand. If you are under age 45, odds are you are probably a wimp when it comes to winter because you never experienced a real winter.
Why don’t M-NR MU cars have “snowplow” pilots, at least in the winter? Bolt-on; un-bolt in the summer. Well, maybe not “un-bolt”, as they can deflect derelicts, drunks, and potential suicides from the tracks. Excelsior!
Wow! Look at Amtrak 48&49 on the Amtrak Status Update for the last couple days. 48 started out of Chicago already four hours down, then ended 12 hours late. 49 had a sunrise arrival at Syracuse this Saturday morning when it’s usually 9:30pm last night. Started out of NYP 6 hours down last night. Mmmmnnn
Wow! Look at Amtrak 48&49 on the Amtrak Status Update for the last couple days. 48 started out of Chicago already four hours down, then ended 12 hours late. 49 had a sunrise arrival at Syracuse this Saturday morning when it’s usually 9:30pm last night. Started out of NYP 6 hours down last night. Mmmmnnn
No mode of transportation is immune to major storms, but trains are pretty robust weatherwise. In general, rail service doesn’t even slow down for many conditions that routinely paralyze winged and rubber-tired transport. Trains just roll right through fog, thunderstorms, light to moderate snowfall, and freezing rain while planes, cars, trucks, and buses have to sit and wait for more congenial operating conditions.
As soon as the first travel disruptions are announced in a weather situation that doesn’t affect rail travel, Amtrak and transit agencies should announce that their trains are operating normally in spite of the weather, thank you, and would be happy to take people where they are going.
Mel, ignore the delusional.
alas, while mr. guse is entitled to his opinions, i am forced to
at least offer an alternative view. as someone who is
considerably older than 45 and who spent much of his
life in vermont, i can tell you with assurance that no matter
how much sand - or how many bricks – or lead weights – you
placed in the back of a of rear-wheel drive sedan – even with
snow tires on all four wheels – you were a sitting duck the
moment you hit ice – there was simply no control, either up
or down hill in vermont’s terrain. while mr. guse is correct
that chains made a great difference – as did the advent of studded tires – you needed evenly distributed weight for
the chains to perform well in all conditions – a pick up truck was a goner – a fully loaded dump truck (in lo) could handle
anything. but 40 years ago in vermont, people waited the storms out, the plows got to work in earnest as the storm abated, and THEN we went to school … or work. it wasn’t
a cakewalk then and it isn’t now.
The Goof, OOPS, Goose, honks again!
It sounds like the Gusse has been sniffing too much fumes again in the cab of his truck.
As the Guse continues his delusions, we should command the men and women who have to work in this severe weather and conditions.
What the hell do you think this storm is, Goosie? A patty cake?
I spent most of my life living just outside of Chicago and despite Mr Guise and his brick theory…myself and many another driver got stuck, bricks or not…sand or not. Whats wimpy as Mr Guise suggests are not folks under 45, but his own comments qualify for that honor on a intellectual basis.
Snow and ice can be formidable to any transport option and the amount is secondary to the how it is handled. In the case of Chicago, it is no better or worse than New York. The wimpy approach to handling snow was exemplified by a certain mayor being tossed out of office because of very weak preparedness and action in a heavy snowfall. How wimpy is defined is not a matter of age or bricks in the trunk.
As a long time MN commuter from Milford, CT to GCT, my hat is off to NYMTA. They routinely make it work 24/7/365. While the truckers sit in a Flying J and the flyers sit at LGA we are underway!
Relax. Postpone travel and take a few deep breaths. The world is not going to end.
Guse. You sir , are a hater. I hooked up to several trailers this past week to find the brakes were frozen.i found snow on my roof…i found customers closed…shippers out of product and the whole event…disgusting. the storm of 78 was way easier to deal with. This storm brought deep COLD! Much harder for RRs ti deal with than 78, because of switches. What does your relatives do to combat -40wind chills???