This video was shown in the Herald Sun newspaper here in Melbourne, Australia during the week and shows a freight train travelling through Boone and Mc Henry counties in Illinois. The video was taken by the Black Box camera located in the cab of the rear facing locomotive.
Watch for the white tank car and brace for impact!
Link; <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://video.heraldsun.com.au/2020496231/AMAZING-FOOTAGE-Train-derails-through-tornado">http://video.heraldsun.com.au/202049623 ... gh-tornado</a><!-- m -->
A couple of things surprised me about this video. I thought engineers were under instructions to halt trains in proximity to tornados as its easier to clean up a toppled train than a train derailed at speed. The approach speed of the white tank car also proves the point as I am assuming that the train went into emergency as cars began to topple.
Mark
If the names Boone and Mc Henry counties sound familiar it is because they are two of the counties Jake and Elwood Blues drove through with the civil defence speaker mounted on the roof of the Bluesmobile to promote the concert at the Palace Hotel Ballroom in the first Blues Brothers movie.
Whoa! That is quite impressive. :o
I wonder what happens if one of those tank cars carries toxic liquids that end up being dispersed all over the area by the tornado? I see a plot for a sci-fi disaster flic in the making!
Hell yeah, when I first saw that white tank car skidding towards the loco mounted camera I thought 'Oh shit here we go', while wondering what was in the tank car.
I guess the footage will be used in a lot of training situations, but I am wondering if it shows that one box car behind a loco hauling volatile tank cars is really going to be enough.
Mark
From what I know, this happened in the summer of 2009 - Conrail MIke posted a youtube link on July 5th, 2009. Did the Herald Sun treat this as breaking news, or just as an "amazing" video?
No doubt the footage is nothing short of amazing! The first time a person views it, can't help but think "disaster" as that tank car comes bouncing down the tracks. And then, even on 2nd, 3rd, and even 15th viewings, it is still darned cool.
It looked to me like there was 4 cars (maybe 5) between the loco and the tank car - probably covered hoppers. These cars all derailed onto their sides first, then the tank car comes down the track and hits the loco, and then a boxcar smashes into the wreck.
There is a newer one out there, part of the recent bunch of tornadoes, but nowhere near as drmatic as this one. Among other things, it shows a tornado passing over a standing train, knocking cars off the track as it goes.
--Randy
Mr Fixit Wrote:This video was shown in the Herald Sun newspaper here in Melbourne, Australia during the week and shows a freight train travelling through Boone and Mc Henry counties in Illinois. The video was taken by the Black Box camera located in the cab of the rear facing locomotive.
Watch for the white tank car and brace for impact!
Link; <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://video.heraldsun.com.au/2020496231/AMAZING-FOOTAGE-Train-derails-through-tornado">http://video.heraldsun.com.au/202049623 ... gh-tornado</a><!-- m -->
A couple of things surprised me about this video. I thought engineers were under instructions to halt trains in proximity to tornados as its easier to clean up a toppled train than a train derailed at speed. The approach speed of the white tank car also proves the point as I am assuming that the train went into emergency as cars began to topple.
Mark
If the names Boone and Mc Henry counties sound familiar it is because they are two of the counties Jake and Elwood Blues drove through with the civil defence speaker mounted on the roof of the Bluesmobile to promote the concert at the Palace Hotel Ballroom in the first Blues Brothers movie.
Hey Mark, Tornados sometimes drop out of nowhere.
I'll second that! We had a small tornado develop quickly not far from where I work a week ago. Fortunately only damage was a few uprooted trees.
Ralph
Is it me, or does there seem to be more tornadoes across North American than usual this year?
There is crazy weather everywhere. Our spring here on the west coast started a month late, but we got off easy, considering what other areas of the world are experiencing.
Wonder how long it will still take for all humans everywhere to realize how much impact we have on the world with our actions.
Mr Fixit Wrote:The approach speed of the white tank car also proves the point as I am assuming that the train went into emergency as cars began to topple.
I first saw this linked in an email on one of the mailing lists belong to, with the comment "bail off those engine brakes, boys!"
I asked a good friend that drives trains about that comment. My recollection of his response is that in a break-apart condition, the entire train will, as you noted, go into emergency. If the break is close to the front (like this), the engines will stop much faster than the rest of the train for two reasons:
- The locomotives have less inertia
- Depending on the train length it can take a good long time before the entire train has applied it's brakes (an emergency signal travels through the brake pipe at 900 feet per second), so until then at least a portion of the train is running free.
"Bailing off" referred to manually (and quickly) releasing the brakes on the locomotive so that the locomotives will roll free - which should keep them from being punched in the rear by a very large torpedo!
Fluesheet Wrote:"Bailing off" referred to manually (and quickly) releasing the brakes on the locomotive so that the locomotives will roll free - which should keep them from being punched in the rear by a very large torpedo!
This is absolutely right. It is one of the first things I learned as a student engineer, bale off those engines in case of emergency application and keep the slack stretched. You'd be amazed at the kick in the rear you can get from an undesired emergency application, potentially throwing you, your grip, your drink, paperwork, etc. off your seat onto the floor, down into the nose, up onto the windshield, etc. As a conductor once I was almost thrown from the front porch of an SD40-2 when I was walking out preparing to get off the unit and my train derailed and went into emergency 30 cars behind the units.
So just how much warning of a tornado are you likely to get when working for the railroads?
Or does it depend upon the size of the road you work for?
How much warning does the average person get of an aproaching tornado?
Does the size of the tornado alter the time period?
Are we still in Kansas Toto?
Mark
Mr Fixit Wrote:So just how much warning of a tornado are you likely to get when working for the railroads?
Or does it depend upon the size of the road you work for?
How much warning does the average person get of an aproaching tornado?
Does the size of the tornado alter the time period?
Are we still in Kansas Toto?
Mark
I don't know about railroad policy regarding possible tornado weather threats but the average person (at least from my experience in Iowa and Minnesota) can get a heads up about conditions being favorable for the creation of tornadoes hours before one occurs...this is referred to as a "Tornado Watch" that is posted by the National Weather Service. The actual development of a tornado can occur suddenly. Doplar weather and trained spotters scan for funnel clouds and twisters on the ground. Once a tornado is confirmed a "Tornado Warning" is made and local sirens are activated to warn the public. Depending on where you are in relation to the actual tornado you might have seconds to more than half an hour to take shelter. Meteorologists track the direction of the storm and plot its likely targets.
So, you might know all day that things could get hairy...but when they actually do you might not have a lot of time to duck and cover!
Ralph
Ralph Wrote:So, you might know all day that things could get hairy...but when they actually do you might not have a lot of time to duck and cover!
Ralph
True! I get the NMRA magazine and in the editors piece was a description of damage that the HQ and some employees houses received on the same day .
In the case of the employee, they took care of the damage that was done to the main building by a smaller tornado, but were warned that nastier weather was on it's way later that day. She drove home safely through the detritous that was strewn about, then took shelter with her family in the bathtub (no basement). After a couple of hours, the threat seemed to have abated, she took her kids to another room to get them ready for bed, and happened to look out the window and saw a wall of blackness. She screamed run!, grabbed the kids, got back in the tub and shut the bathroom door. Moments later, there was some very loud racket, then silence.
She opened the door of the bathroom - the remainder of her home was gone. Wow.
So you get warning, but you may not get warning!