Posted on 02/07/2010 5:45:01 AM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Prayers for her speedy and safe return home!
I LOVE IT!!!
I am not sure why anyone would think that of all things, a train, would be able to sail right through a heavy snowfall. Trains are as bad as automobiles when it comes to snow because drifting snow and heavy accumulations block the tracks. A quick glance at our history will reveal many examples. In 1896, on Long Island, a heavy snow fall blocked the passenger train from King’s Park to Wading River on Christmas Eve. It took to the next day to extricate the passengers. On another occasion during the same year, heavy snow blocked the trains from Long Island City to Southhampton. Howver, passengers were able to be removed from the trains by the use of sleighs, which safely transported them to the nearest town. In addition, who could forget the story in the Laura Ingalls Wilder book, “The Long Winter”? The blizzard of 1888 dumped so much snow in the Dakota Territory that the trains were unable to make it through with needed supplies. The moral of the story is when it is a blizzard or a time of heavy snows, stay home.
Prayers for your wife and her quick and safe return.
And then there was this one.
http://cprr.org/Museum/Stranded_Streamliner_1952/index.html
“The Case of the Stranded Streamliner”
The rescue of SP’s snowbound “City of San Francisco”at Yuba Pass, January 13-19, 1952.
Nothing unusual at all for AMTRAK to be stopped.
Every kind of weather, warm, cold, rainy, snow........they have troubles on the line.
stranded in Connellsville with KFC for dinner
That’s a redneck honeymoon!
Yeah, Carley, the “even stops AMTRAC(sic) trains” caught my eye, too. So much snow that it stops government trains? Isn’t that kinda like “so much snow that it closes government offices early”, or “so much snow that it closes government schools”.
Hope she’s all right! that must be very worrisome.
The DC metro is shut down for the second time this winter due to blizzards. Absolutely crazy.
After an snowfall/ice storm in the 1990's made it impossible to get anywhere for a week, a second moral is to have lots of food in the pantry at all times, plus a backup source of heat for the house.
Thanks for your concerns and I'll show her this listing.
AMTRAK sceduled a special train out of Pittsburgh PA that arrived here in Toledo at about 9:30. At last she's home. About 30 hours overdue. That NY Times story is such a total crock, by the way. She was there and the situation was nothing like the media bottom feeders described. What's new?
There was another train blocked in the Rocky mountains just a month or two ago. It arrive a day or two late. I didn’t think about trains being blocked by downed trees before. I always thought the right of ways were to wide for that. It just goes to show people have to check weather forcasts for train trips as well as car, bus, and plane travel.
So, how are all those people that are invited to the WH for a Super Bowl party going to get there?
Tons of peons without power and Dear Leader is going on with his party.
Thank you for sharing that very interesting story. It completely absorbed my attention!!! What came to mind as I was reading it was the devotion to life and limb shown by the rail road employees. A stark contrast to the current Amtrak story that stated the workers could not perform their duties past a certain amount of hours. So what did they do? Sleep?
The engineers can't drive the train after so many hours on the job. Safety issue. The crew rested and were about to take the train on to Pittsburgh, but they never got the go-ahead. Later, the passengers were told that "It will take weeks to clear the tracks in the mountains."
Just found out that the freight train immediately behind the passenger train did indeed derail after hitting downed trees etc. 113 cars off the track. They will have to build a road to the wreak site to recover cargo etc.
If the passenger train had been behind the freight, they would have been trapped in the total middle of nowhere. I guess Connelsville PA is close enough to nowhere, but there is a definite difference...no KFC for one.
The sun that brief December day
Rose cheerless over hills of gray,
And, darkly circled, gave at noon
A sadder light than waning moon.
Slow tracing down the thickening sky
Its mute and ominous prophecy,
A portent seeming less than threat,
It sank from sight before it set.
A chill no coat, however stout,
Of homespun stuff could quite shut out,
A hard, dull bitterness of cold,
That checked, mid-vein, the circling race
Of life-blood in the sharpened face,
The coming of the snow-storm told.
The wind blew east; we heard the roar
Of Ocean on his wintry shore,
And felt the strong pulse throbbing there
Beat with low rhythm our inland air.
Prayers for your wife.
What a beautiful poem. And thank you for your prayers. BTW, there was indeed a professional musician on board the snow-train! His name is Charlie Cheney and he lives in Michigan
(http://fawm.org/fawmers/charliecheney)
He was one his way home when the train was trapped. He played guitar for the passengers and was great. He will be writing a song about the experience, he said. It might be about "the ghost train" that never arrived. Or something.
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