Riding the Rails, Until the Weather Caught Up

New York Times ^ | February 6, 2010 | LIZ ROBBINS

[Huebolt]

When the powerful Mid-Atlantic winter storm grounded all flights and shut down highways in the Mid-Atlantic region, Amtrak’s Capitol Limited, bound for Chicago from Washington, seemed to offer 115 passengers the perfect cozy alternative as it sped through the snow-swept countryside on Friday night.

[abb]

History Channel has an episode about this that they show periodically. Here is the DVD on their website.

http://shop.history.com/detail.php?p=68834&v=history_show_wrath-of-god&pagemax=all

[Huebolt]

Great link. The freight train behind the amtrac did indeed derail and a road will have to be built to it to offload cargo etc. Those mountain passes can be very dangerous. The porter on the amtrac told my wife that some of the line goes through areas where derailing would send the train off the edge of some very high cliffs into the valley far below.

[abb]

There’s even a book about the 1952 event.

http://www.signaturepress.com/SSrev.html
Snowbound Streamliner

by Robert J. Church

[BikerJoe]

stranded in Connellsville with KFC for dinner That’s a redneck honeymoon!

Hey, I have family in Connellsville...

They agree...

[csvset]

“The Case of the Stranded Streamliner”

That was quite an adventure, thanks for posting it.

[backhoe]

http://www.freedominion.com.pa/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=1443744#1443744

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/4820530.Tornado_to_the_rescue/

Tornado to the rescue

MORE than 100 commuters left freezing when their modern electric trains broke down in a snowstorm had to be rescued by a steam locomotive.

The Tornado, which was made in the North-East from blueprints almost 50 years old, was the only train capable of rescuing London city workers when their trains ground to a halt because of the bad weather.

The Tornado that rescued the Chunnel stranded- note date:

Absolutely chuffed! What happened when 30 grown men gave up 18 years to build a steam train--In 1938, driving an engine like the world record-breaking Mallard (a streamlined LNER design) was roughly akin to being an astronaut.

[Huebolt]

The amtrac passengers were rescued much less glamourously: a bus took them to the next station where they boarded a “special” to complete their trip... oh well

[backhoe]

I was just mentioning to wife Miss Emily how hilarious it would be if Global Warming really does become the New Ice Age, and we have to fall back to steam locomotives and cars to get around...