outdoor electric trains NOT battery rf controlled

[TinGoat]

Very interesting conversation!

I'll leave the electrical issues to the experts.

However, the wind causing derailments would be prototypical.

The Newfoundland Railway had a section of track that went across a wide windy plain.

Trains could easily be blown off the rails in a "Sou-Easter".

The Human Wind Gauge

Like most everything else in Newfoundland, Wreckhouse has a rather interesting history attached to it. In the days when trains still ran here, the Wreckhouse miles were a stressful haul for the engineers. In 1939, tired of having the trains blown off the tracks, the rail company hired a local trapper to advise them of the wind conditions. Lockie MacDougall lived at Wreckhouse, and claimed the uncanny ability to ‘smell’ the wind. Given a telephone and twenty dollars a month salary, Lockie sent warning of approaching southeasters. Until his death in 1965, Lockie delayed hundreds of trains and saved as many lives during his employ as a ‘human wind gauge’.

Read more at Suite101: Natural Wonders of Newfoundland: Wreckhouse and the Human Wind Gauge <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://newfoundland-labrador-travel.suite101.com/article.cfm/natural_wonders_of_newfoundland#ixzz0mbKaak3k">http://newfoundland-labrador-travel.sui ... z0mbKaak3k</a><!-- m -->