Tornado damage to tracks in Kansas?

[JeanA]

I just briefly caught a news glimpse as I was running out the door of some railroad tracks in Kansas having been mangled by an EF4 tornado. Does anyone know if that was Amtrak rail?

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I just briefly caught a news glimpse as I was running out the door of some railroad tracks in Kansas having been mangled by an EF4 tornado. Does anyone know if that was Amtrak rail?

There's talk on Facebook about #3 and #4 being stopped. Nobody has said specifically why, but suspect the bad weather has something to do with it. Even if the track Amtrak uses were not damaged by the storms, they would still want to take it slow and easy to make sure the tracks are safe.

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

Big storms in Kansas. One went over the tracks just west of Dodge City, yesterday. Missed the city by a mile or so. Not sure if a tornado would do much damage to railroad tracks. Pick up some ballast maybe. Quick inspection after a storm. Removal of any debris. Slow orders if ballast is missing. Tracks should be up shortly after a twister.

More storm today, welcome to Kansas.

Unless there was a house that was relocated to the tracks...

 

[the_traveler]

One of the news stories showed a freight that was blown over by one of the storms!

 

[Agent]

Discussion here indicates a tornado damaged a Union Pacific line in Kansas. The Amtrak trains in Kansas travel on the BNSF Railway.

The train that was blown over was a Union Pacific train on a different UP line in western Iowa.

 

[Steve4031]

The 3 that was delayed in Kansas ran late to listen Vegas, mm and then entered service disruption. It has not made it to lamy.

 

[Steve4031]

Correction. 3 left abq at 8:44 pm. I needed to close and reopen status maps.

 

[crabby_appleton1950]

Big storms in Kansas. One went over the tracks just west of Dodge City, yesterday. Missed the city by a mile or so. Not sure if a tornado would do much damage to railroad tracks. Pick up some ballast maybe. Quick inspection after a storm. Removal of any debris. Slow orders if ballast is missing. Tracks should be up shortly after a twister.

More storm today, welcome to Kansas.

Unless there was a house that was relocated to the tracks...

Hope it didn't land on a witch!

 

[Bob Dylan]

Gave a me a real Laugh to start the day!

" We're not in Kansas anymore Toto!"

 

[afigg]

Big storms in Kansas. One went over the tracks just west of Dodge City, yesterday. Missed the city by a mile or so. Not sure if a tornado would do much damage to railroad tracks. Pick up some ballast maybe. Quick inspection after a storm. Removal of any debris. Slow orders if ballast is missing. Tracks should be up shortly after a twister.

Besides debris and trees blown down onto the tracks, high winds may damage or take out crossing gates or knock down signal poles. Unless or until the crossing gates & lights are checked, the train may have to stop at each grade crossing. A direct hit from a strong tornado can definitely damage the tracks, track bed, bridges. etc.

 

[JeanA]

Photos on the news showed warped and twisted rails - amazing how much power those storms have.