tornados??

[verna]

Hi everyone! What happens if a severe weather outlook is issued in the area a train is traveling? I'm sure the conductors will be alerted, right? It's just so nervewracking seeing the destruction happening in the South right now, and I'm curious-would tehy stop the train somewhere so everyone could take cover in a basement? Would they be sent on another route? Thanks in advance!

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

I recall an instance 4 or 5 years ago when the southbound Crescent was held at the Atlanta station about an hour because a tornado was on the ground about 30 miles from Atlanta. I was not present at the time but I was on the train about a week later and saw a lot of damage near the tracks.

I assume the passengers stayed on the train rather than herded into the station but I do not really know.

I recall seeing on the news 2 or 3 years ago when a tornado blew into downtown Nashville, TN., some footage shown where a freight train was stopped, at the far left of the screen, waiting for the storm to clear.

I also recall an instance when I was on MARTA(the subway system in ATL) and we were indeed escorted off the train to a downstairs area due to a possible nearby tornado.

I assume a train out in the middle of nowhere genuinely in the immediate path of a funnel would just stop, but I cannot thnk people would be herded into a basement, who would know where a nearby basement is?

If a tornado was just seen, at a distance, I assume the train would continue running normally. I guess it takes a judgement call by the conductor and seconded by the engineer.

Your question could not be more timely for me because we are in the middle of tornado warnings as I type, and have been 4 or 5 times the last week or two.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

You also ask if the train would be sent on another route....that would make more sense for a hurricane(being a huge and more predictable storm) and floods.

Tornados form too quickly to reasonably know to re-route a train, and nobody can predict the exact path of a tornado.

Consider that example I gave at the first, when the Crescent was sitting in the station in Atlanta. If the tornado had torn up the tracks then they would either annul the train or find another route, it being at a station, from which other routes might be available.

But my point is, tornadoes are so small and usually short-lived and different from massive hurricanes(which last for days) itis just not likely that anybody could know sensibly to re-route them.

 

[Amtrak Watcher]

Given their tremendous weight, do you think a tornado could do any harm to a train?

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

Yes, absolutely---no question. A freight train was lifted off the tracks a few days ago in one of the midwestern states.It was on national news. The really bad tornadoes often lift trucks and buses. No problem for a really bad one to blow a train off the tracks--not an entire long freight train, I wouldn't think...just depending on the angle at which the train encountered the tornado....but the act of lifting...sure thing. If a bad tornado "straddled" the whole length of a train, of course it was all be blown off.

Somebody on this forum has witnessed a tornado from the train, in perhaps Montana, I think. He has written about it at least twice....in the context of early memories of train riding, becoming attached to trains, etc. He(I can't remember who it is) does not specify that the train had any reaction to the tornado....suggests the funnel cloud was off at a safe distance. If he is reading this, perhaps he will respond.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

In passing by the Amtrak station in ATL this morning about 7, I saw a set of Crescent equipment in the station. Not supposed to be there. The n.b. is supposed to leave at 8.06 p.m. The s.b. is supposed to leave at 9.18 a.m.

Trying to figure out what happened from checking train status and "Julie"(the automated reservation/information system). Looks like the train left BHm about an hour late last yesterday afternoon but was about 11 hours late in ATL this morning...so the train I saw at 7 had just arrived. No doubt due to widespread storm systems in the region.

One thing one has to keep in mind about trains....you have to consider the weather EVERYWHERE it goes. for example, weather could be great in ATl (where I live)but have flooding in New Orleans or a blizzard in New York, which would affect the way trains perform all the way.

The stormy weather in Georiga turned out to be very widespread but few if any actual tornadoes touched down...but they did touch down in BHM area. So, it got pretty screwed up.

This was a widespread system----does not really contradict my first thought about a tornado, thinking of it as a more isolated, uppredictable event as it often is.

 

[tubaallen]

Yes, to my knowledge, the conductors and engineers are ALWAYS aware of the weather forecast and the weather ahead. I think dispatchers tend to give heads up about stuff like that.

As far as a tornado, I'm guessing that because they don't travel that fast, the train might just try and outrun it. A tornado's interior system is moving VERY fast, however, the actual ground speed it travels is not very fast. Sometimes they die after only 100 yards or so.