Tornado Season

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so what happens to the train if there is a tornado en route?

Yes this question might not have come to mind but evidently TWC has resolved thier differences with DirecTV.

And the recent weather in the plains states were horrific. so... what happens to a train?
 
The freight companies and Amtrak keep an eye on the weather at all times. I imagine if there is a tornado warning for a particular area, all rail traffic would be halted before entering that area.

If the train is already in that area, well, keep statistics in mind. You have a train going approximately 79 mph, depending on the area it's in, and the tornado might not be heading straight for it. So, there's a chance the tornado will miss it. If the tornado is coming straight toward it, from any direction, there's only so much a train can do.

If it's really close and appears it's going to hit the train, get into a safe position in a safe area (i.e. away from windows) and cover your head with a pillow/blanket/coat. If you're in Coach, cover your upper body too, if possible. If that luggage starts flying around, you don't want it to hit your head or rib/abdominal area. If you're in a roomette, use the bedroll as protection. If you have time, then the safest place would be either the shower room or one of the restrooms.
 
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If the train is not in the immediate area, it will stop and wait before it proceeds. I've been on many trains where it has stopped due to high winds in the area up ahead. After 20-30 minutes, we proceeded on our way.
 
More than likely if there's a severe thunderstorm in the area a Flash Flood Warning would be issued which requires reduced speed and extra vigilance from crews for hazards that could effect their train. If there's a tornado the dispatcher would more than likely get all the trains in the area to stop or reduce to Restricted Speed.
 
I was on the Cardinal while we were in a tornado zone. We stopped for a number of hours. I slept.
 
If the train is not in the immediate area, it will stop and wait before it proceeds. I've been on many trains where it has stopped due to high winds in the area up ahead. After 20-30 minutes, we proceeded on our way.
Same here. I've been on the TE several times when there were tornadoes in the area we were supposed to go into, and we just stopped a considerable distance away and waited. Sometimes for a couple hours. Once, for some reason, they shut everything down - no airconditioning and a hot day. The car attendant opened the windows in the lower level door and we all stood around there to try to at least get a little fresh air.
 
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I noticed that the CONO was close to 6 hours late getting into New Orleans last evening. I would think that they were held up due to all the storms in Mississippi.
 
I noticed that the CONO was close to 6 hours late getting into New Orleans last evening. I would think that they were held up due to all the storms in Mississippi.
There were many issues with straight-line winds as well. I wondered if the CONO would be affected the same way a tractor-trailer might. The train is heavier, I'm sure, but I've heard of freight trains getting pushed over by high winds.
 
Yes, there are issues with straight line winds. Double stacks are particularly vulnerable, and much worse so if the containers are empty or lightly loaded. The superliners would be less vulnerable than the container trains. BNSF at least, and probably the otherr major railroad companies have a contract weather service to give them warnings of weather conditions that are of particularly significance to them both in nature and location. They have rules for the various weather conditions from reductions in speed to stop until allowed to procede and when proceding various precations to take going down to such be able to stop withing the length of track you can see and await inspection of bridges and other such. Generally it is the company that sets the constraints that Amtrak trains must observe during severe weather, not Amtrak itself. The speed restriction may not be the same for all types of equipment. Obviously a heavy mineral train would be less subject to wind than a container train.
 
We were in STL last year southbound on the TE. Shortly after they had loaded all the passengers the tornado sirens went off. I went downstairs and found one of the conductors down there with the door open. Asked if we should go into the station for shelter. They said policy was to shelter in place, it would take too long to unload everyone safely if there was an actual tornado coming.

They made no announcements other than we couldn't leave the station until the tornado warning was lifted. We stopped several other times throughout the night during heavy rain and didn't get to Little Rock until after daybreak.
 
Last year my Silver Meteor was held just outside of Kissimmee and Orlando when the dark skies began to bend downward into a wedge. The funnel cloud never got the power to touch down, so the we proceeded and dime sized raindrops started at the snap of a finger just after I detrained, stopped two minutes later the same way. I had a refreshing laugh!
 
The more likely effect on train operations is a dramatic slow-down... because of downed trees on tracks... or signal power outages, particularly highway crossings... or flash flood warnings (in the South and maybe elsewhere, NS requires all trains to proceed at restricted speed throughout an entire county in which a flash food warning has been issued).
 
The more likely effect on train operations is a dramatic slow-down... because of downed trees on tracks... or signal power outages, particularly highway crossings... or flash flood warnings (in the South and maybe elsewhere, NS requires all trains to proceed at restricted speed throughout an entire county in which a flash food warning has been issued).
Yes. In 2006 we were in NB Silver Meteor (you can tell I ride this route often) that hit a tree felled by severe thunderstoorms; not pretty. The Viewliner sleepers, which are the first cars and thus most vulnerable, bumped up and lurches slightly, to the sound of splintering wood. The P42 had windows smashed and the engineer I read later was hospitalized for flying glass and other debris. Had the tree been larger, or maybe at a different angle, we would have derailed.
 
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