I thought this topic came up recently, but I couldn't find anything. The topic was brought up yesterday that we really don't have a procedure for what to do if severe weather or tornados pop up while a passenger train is out. How do other groups handle this?

If the dispatcher issues a Form C for a Tornado Warning we would stop the train and shelter in place. We run Lackawanna MUs so they're heavy, but the windows would obviously be an issue. It's not a policy we've had to put into practice yet.

I'm interested to see what others do as well.

I was at the Museum of Transportation once by myself doing something on the 1522 when it looked for the world like a tornado was going to form and hit. I went over and crawled in the Big Boy's firebox. I think that would have been safe.

In one situation, an operation that was under a tornado warning decided to evacuate all passengers and crew and take shelter in a railroad tunnel. They didn't have a severe weather plan, and that was what they came up with impromtu.

Thankfully the tornado didn't touch-down in the area, and no one was hurt. However, when they were later writing their plan with emergency and weather officials, they were warned that the tunnel was not the safest place to take shelter, the reason being that wind gusts could be channeled through it and intensified, turning it into a wind-tunnel (No pun intended) on steroids that could potentially become deadly with flying debris.

It's easy imagine a tunnel the perfect storm shelter, but apparently it is not. The above story might be something to keep in mind if an operation has a tunnel on site.

If you are in a moving/movable train, perhaps you should consider just running away, intelligently. Tornado mapping has gotten quite good over the last few years. A lot of people have saved their own and family's life by just jumping in the car and leaving. The weather service has acknowledged this phenomenon, and can see that it works pretty well, overall. However, they have been hesitant to recommend it, I think simply because if they did they would end up with half the city in a traffic jam with a tornado bearing down on them. On a railroad, the problem of the traffic jam may be much less or non-existent. So find out where the tornado is and where it is going, and move out of it's path.

Don't ask me what to do if the tornado is on your tail following the tracks.. (I think I'd still be running away and hoping the tornado goes away)

I grew up with twisters, but have no experience relating to rail weather emergencies. I would say it depends. The twisters that destroyed a town not far from here Pilger, Ne was hit by two twisters. If there is a set path and only 1 potential funnel if you can get the train to safety then do so (especially keeping in mind the remoteness of some lines). If there is more then 1 potential twister or if you cant get out of the way find safety asap. Some super cells can dump 1 twister after the other and they can land anywhere and go anywhere. A good case in point I was heading to work in 2009 and a twister producing super cell just rolled in town. I could see dozens of small funnels forming in the clouds, but only 5 touched down in and around town. 1 made a 20 mile path east and derailed a bnsf freight train near Murphy, Ne. If you have to abandon the train shut down the diesel in case it tips over. In a steamer dump the fire, and try to release steam in case of debris puncturing the boiler or tipping it over. The last thing anyone wants is to survive a twister then to be scalded or roasted by a damaged engine. Even a fast food straw can jam itself in a utility pole, a 2 by 4 can go through a concrete wall when sucked by a twister. It isnt hard to see the danger of leaving a running diesel or hot steamer 200ft away when a twister bears down on you!

Get started here:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/com/weatherreadynation/

Ideally someone in your organization can become a Weather Ready Nation Ambassador. Start with the basics; NOAA weather radios in your offices (change batteries when you change your fire detector batteries).

But go the next step and contact your local NWS forecast office. There are 122 of them, each with an area of responsibility. If you don't know where your local office is already, you can click through the map here to find out:

http://www.weather.gov/

Email or call and ask to talk to the Warning Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) or the Meteorologist in Charge (MIC). An invite out to see your operation will likely be welcomed and end up providing a number of clues and ideas, as well as a better understanding of the threats in your area (Just not severe weather, but also flash flooding as an example). Perhaps offer a cab ride so they can see first hand how you operate. Up until 9/11, NWS forecasters could ride cockpit jump seats in commercial airliners.

Your NWS office is usually staffed with folks who have spent years, if not entire careers in the area and understand local weather effects. Slow moving trains with lots of windows offer challenges and working with the NWS folks might help you find a solution that best fits your operation and local conditions.

Even if crew are NOT allowed to carry smart phones, be sure they are familiar with Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA):

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/com/weatherreadynation/wea.html

as when a WEA message is sent, it will alert your passenger's phones by the dozens with most passengers turning to your crew looking for confirmation and direction as what they should do next. WEA works where there is cell phone coverage. Extreme remote operations like Cass have their own unique challenges.

It's assumed you've already talked to your local/city/county emergency management officials as to better educate them and yourself as to what happens AFTER the weather hits. This should be part of your plan.

PM if you have problems finding out who to talk to locally. Shoot, you might even pick up a new volunteer. There is one operation in the northeast who has a qualified engineer who is an NWS forecaster who I believe lurks here (Dave... :-).

Cheers,

Bob Bunge
National Weather Service
Project Manager

Fortunately tornados are rarely a concern at Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, Washington, PA. But the other half of the title of this string, "severe weather," certainly is. In particular thunderstorms with their accompanying lightning. Much of our operating fleet is 80 to 105 years old. They did have some lightning protection back when these cars were built and we do maintain that. But our policy nevertheless is to get the cars indoors if possible and at minimum to get the trolley poles off the wire for the duration of the lightning event.

Tornado activity is a non-issue in the mountains of Southern California. Rarely, we get some thunderstorm activity in the area. Assuming that a switch stand is an excellent ground, we advise against throwing a switch or even standing near a switch stand during a thunderstorm.

Biggest weather issue we had was a number of years ago when we had our train in Tecate, Mexico. Got a very heavy rain, and there was a newly built manufacturing plant, just up-hill from the tracks. It had a parking lot that drained to the tracks, so the run-off washed out about a 20 foot section of track. It is about 15 miles from Tecate, back to our operations center in Campo, CA. Tecate has plenty of buses, but, of course, they aren't licensed to operate in the US. We had to arrange for charter buses to come out from San Diego to get our passengers back to Campo. The border crossing is only about 6 blocks from the Tecate depot, so it was no big deal to get the passengers to the border. We had to leave the train in Tecate for 4 or 5 days, until the Mexican track crew repaired the line. What would happen to your train if you left it in an unfenced rail yard in the US? Our wasn't touched!

Anyone know what procedure(s) are used by used by the BNSF, Union Pacific, KCS or other railroads operating within "Tornado Alley"?

Interesting replies. It looks like there is no standard procedures among tourist lines. I would be curious about what Amtrak's procedures are. All this came up because a good friend was working on a train when 5 tornados touched down within 50 miles. Because tornados are not common in our area, nobody really knew what to do, and there was a little bit of panic. The cars are mostly heavy weights with a couple converted DL&W MU cars. As stated above, the glass is more a concern than anything else.

Flash and regular flooding are indeed threats. Imagine coming around a curve and seeing this where solid ground or your bridge approach used to be. It's happened twice now to a certain well known RR in the Pacific NW. Other railroads in the area have also had problems with track washouts.

I donno. A tornado laid three heavyweight coaches on their sides at the Ladysmith Rail Display in Wisconsin a few years ago.

This video has been making the rounds for a while, but is pertinent here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-smEEHYdGQ

The scariest thing is how the emergency application has little effect on the train compared to the power, and even though derailed, runs up and gives it a good boot.