Is this normal?

Consider the average snow fall for the Philly/Lancaster Region is only about 20-35 inches... The City of Philadelphia (at the airport) itself has gotten over 72 inches this winter so far ... northern parts of the City (within City limits but some 15- 20 miles north of the PHL airport) have gotten even higher amounts. If this snow is a 12 inch plus storm, we'll be over 90 inches for the year... and it's still not over.

Denver CO gets and 'average' of 62 inches a year, they may be used to it, but by comparison for us, it's like having Denver getting 160-180 inches of snow in a season and trying to cope.

So no, it's not normal, this is slightly more than most of us around this part of the mid-atlantic are used to. I think to even remotely say that this is a pattern, would be kidding ourselves and is more than likely just a way into getting through it.

Really, this is a total freak of a winter, hands down.

The blessing with the current storms is that for some areas, the recent warmer temps and heavy rain over the weekend did get rid of a good amount of the snow and the temp's will be higher than they have been for the prior 3 weeks, with sustained 40's for several days.

To add on to what Junior said, in addition to all that, for the past decade or so much of the Northeast Corridor region (including Strasburg) has often been subjected to winters with at best a token amount of snow. We've come out of several recent winters in long-term drought situations. Therefore, there have been times when, in the "lowland" regions, you rush your kids out to see the snow because you really don't know if you'll see more that winter. Two decades of rather mellow winters also tends to leave road crews (and budgets) out of practice, as witnessed recently (though, to be fair, that was one heck of a pair of storms).

I've spent the past decade and a half in Maryland occasionally trying to "demand a refund" on winter for the lack of snow, and I don't even ski. I've often said "Just once, I'd like the gods to smack us around a bit and remind us who's really in charge." This year, I got my wish. And my snow-shoveling cardio, to boot.

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Kelly -

I was obviously being facetious earlier in this thread about a rotary. But I wonder if some snow fencing might not help, at least in some of the more bothersome cuts.

BTW, thanks for the info on the plow.

Les

Les:

Snow fence was SOP in the 60's and 70's - we don't recall a real benefit to that. The cuts would still fill up ...

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Uh oh. Well, that's exactly what I HAD planned to do. I have been an annual passholder for the Strasburg Railroad for MANY years and NEVER had seen the SRR snowplow operating on the tracks. Even if that had not been out, I had NEVER ridden the train with snow on the ground. I really wanted to do that.

Well, with thirty-one inches of snow on the ground; then maybe no one is moving anywhere hence the freight loads not arriving. The historical big two punch snowstorm that we had about two weeks ago in the metro Washington, DC area is about half gone now.

Drop back to Plan B ...

I will have to consult my schedule of events and see if I can come up there next weekend ... March 6 and 7, 2010.

For those you who are digging out ... here's the URL for the Ronks, PA forecast ...


http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.ph ... 6.1632&e=0

Neither rain nor snow...

Quite some time ago I asked what the policy was regarding snow closings on tourist railroads, specifically in PA. I was told the assumption, never confirmed, was that most, if not all lines, do run barring very unique circumstances.

We saw the New Hope and Ivyland run in December, as well as Strasburg, both in December and Feb, during difficult weather conditions.

What is the typical policy of the tourist line near you?

As for Strasburg - how many times has the railroad actually closed due to weather conditions over the years. As needed, rare, only a few times over the last decade - not looking for an exact number, rather, just where is the tipping point?

/Mitch

Hi Mitch,

The answer this that most tourist lines don't run at all this time of year....regardless of how GOOD the weather might get. Most of them are busy doing required inspections and maintenance on their locomotives and most wouldn't have the ridership to justify operations in mid-winter.

That's what makes Strasburg so unique. I have been going there since 1972 (still have my first, pristine copy of "The Road to Paradise"...complete with the gift shop sales slip!) and have visited during most every month of the year except during their January break. I've never experienced a canceled train and never ridden behind anything except steam.

BTW, let me add my thanks to the SRC folks and Pete Lerro's Team for the great job they did preparing for and executing the N&W Charter a couple of weeks back. When OWL shot his photos back in the 50's, he found a time warp on the Abingdon Branch. Fortunately, for those of us who were born too late, there's still a time warp left in Southeastern PA!

In this case, it was a matter of several considerations.

With the snow accumulation happening on a Friday, time becomes a big factor. It’s not just a matter of getting the cuts plowed out and switches clear. We have to get the station platforms and mall cleared along with the parking lot and walkways. It takes a lot of people and time to do this. The wind has been unmerciful. 30 minutes after you clear an area, it’s blown over again. In addition, we are running out of places to put the snow.

Another unseen concern is the amount of time being spent moving snow that would normally be spent working on time critical projects. At the moment, Thomas is gutted and his water tanks are being fabricated in the shop. He needs to be ready to go to Michigan by the 1st week of April. #90’s annual has just started and it has to be serviceable by the second week of April. In addition, there are several contract jobs that have a fairly tight deadline. We have spent a tremendous amount of time since the 1st storm in December just trying to keep trains running. That is time that would have been spent in the shops and would have cut back on my consumption of Maalox in addition to Ben-Gay.

One of the main routes to the railroad was shut down for several hours today and several guys couldn’t even get to work this morning. We don’t know if the roads will blow shut overnight or not, but the way things have gone this winter I wouldn’t be surprised.

The thing is, I used to like snow…………

Rick

Rick -

I went by the local Methodist Church today and they had this message on their bulletin board:

"Whomever of you is praying for snow....please stop!"


Les

Ha, Ha ! That shows a good sense of humor. I did not see or hear of anything like that sign message when we (metro Washington, DC) had our two big storms about fourteen days ago.

Mitch wrote: just where is the tipping point?

When the customers can't get there to leave a tip in the jar.

When the snow weighs more than the train.

Rick thanks for the great explanation. On the surface it appears to be "can you run trains?" But your explanation puts it in to a much bigger context. Most folks have little appreciation of all that has to happen to make that train run in the snow, balanced against all that has to happen by a deadline in the shops.

Tom P

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WOW !

Thanks for the link. This is exactly what I wanted to see. The weekend that I had free that was not taken up by volunteer work in the metro Washington, DC area was the weekend (of the first historic snowstorm -- the worst one since the Knickerbocker Storm; Washington, DC of January 1922) that the Strasburg Railroad was closed due to parking lot and other snow removal problems. So, I am able to see through this link to the video and the fine camera and sound work of the photographers who braved the winter conditions, what I would have been able to see if I had been able to get up that particular weekend.

Two months and a day ago we had an historic stormstorm and yesterday Dulles Airport broke a new record for April 6th by having the temperature at 93 degrees.