I saw my fastest-ever level ground speed near Bowling Green, OH, in the next county north of the rail car tipping. (Full disclosure: I'm not much of a cyclist.) Riding directly into the wind for 30 minutes was grueling but sailing back at 30+ MPH, barely pedaling, was a ton of fun.
Yup. I grew up in Hancock Co and used to ride occasionally with the bike club there, had a couple of days when the ride out was brutal because of persistent, endless wind, but then the ride back was awesome for the same reason. :)
All the cars pictured are double stack container cars. If they're empty or full of potato chips it really shouldn't surprise anyone that they blew over and took the cars with them in high wind conditions. Yeah the cars themselves are heavy but they're not that heavy and two containers is a big sail and the upper one has a fairly large lever arm over the car.
Loaded trains don't just "blow over" in anything short of biblical conditions. When there is heavy weather rail operators have been known to park loaded trains on top of various bits of infrastructure for additional security.
Edit: Freight trains, passenger trains are basically tin cans full of air.
This leaves a lot unanswered. Why didn't any other trains tip over? Was the severe weather localized to such an extent that there was only a single train anywhere exposed to it? If I pick a random section of track to park a train what are the odds its in a completely open field with no structures or trees to shelter it from the wind? How often does wind cause derailments in general? Were the containers unusually empty or light weight at the time?
Freak incidents can be interesting to read about, but only when they solve the mystery of the unforeseeable and improbable circumstances which caused it.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 29.6 ms ] threadI saw my fastest-ever level ground speed near Bowling Green, OH, in the next county north of the rail car tipping. (Full disclosure: I'm not much of a cyclist.) Riding directly into the wind for 30 minutes was grueling but sailing back at 30+ MPH, barely pedaling, was a ton of fun.
Loaded trains don't just "blow over" in anything short of biblical conditions. When there is heavy weather rail operators have been known to park loaded trains on top of various bits of infrastructure for additional security.
Edit: Freight trains, passenger trains are basically tin cans full of air.
Hello, could you explain a bit on what you mean by infrastructure? Like bridges or something?
They do it for wind, not water. High waters can erode abutments and pilings and then there goes your bridge.
Freak incidents can be interesting to read about, but only when they solve the mystery of the unforeseeable and improbable circumstances which caused it.