3 Amtrak Trains With Hundreds of Passengers Stranded Since Monday

[hue]

Source: abc NEWS


About 500 passengers aboard three Amtrak trains were stranded overnight in a remote part of northern Illinois because of blowing and drifting snow, Amtrak officials said today.

The trains were halted late Monday near Mendota, about 80 miles west of Chicago. The passengers were aboard the Southwest Chief from Los Angeles, the Illinois Zephyr from Quincy, Ill., and the California Zephyr from the San Francisco Bay area, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told The Associated Press.

The trains became stuck around 4:15 p.m. ET Monday after they hit a 12-foot snow drift that paralyzed the engines, passenger Bryan Plummer told ABC News today by cellphone.

Frigid 'Polar Vortex' Cripples US for Second Straight Day

Amtrak officials say they are working to get the passengers off the trains safely.

"We've completed unloading the first train," spokesman Magliari told ABC News this morning. "We're now moving to unload the second. And all those passengers from those trains who spent the night overnight in Bureau County will be on chartered buses coming here to Chicago this morning."

Laurette Mosley of California says she has been stuck for more than 14 hours on one of the trains. Mosley was en route to Chicago to attend her mother's funeral.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/amtrak-trains-hundreds-passengers-stranded-monday/story?id=21445064

[Earth_First]

1. 12' snowdrifts?!

Is there no way of anticipating these mishaps ahead of time?

Serious question for transportation buffs...

[Lurks Often]

8. Not in Northern IL

That is probably something that happens maybe once every 20-30 years and it isn't cost effective to buy and maintain the specialized equipment to handle 12 foot drifts.

Essentially it is the same reason that southern states have very few snow plows, that equipment is rarely needed.

[olddad56]

33. I hope that this continues to only happen once every 20-30 years,....

but I would expect it to happen more often, and probably get worse in the future. From what I understand, this 'polar vortex' is a result of warmer temperatures and melting ice in the arctic. This is what is causing the jet stream that is pushing the extremely cold weather south to your area.

It seems like weather all over the planet is becoming more severe. I live in Sacramento, Ca. We have been experiencing record temperature almost every day lately. It is weird. 2013 was the driest year on record for northern ca.

Climate change isn't going to turn around. The real debate is whether or not we have reached the tipping point where it becomes irreversible. I personally think there is still time, but if something isn't done on a global level right way, I think it will soon be too late.

Hope that the temperatures start rising for you folks soon, if not already.

[ffr]

2. Can they send some of that moisture our way? We're overheating here

and we're in "exceptional drought," on the West Coast. Every day brings the same sorrowing grief at an extended weather forecast with no precipitation in the 10-day outlook. It's our driest water year yet and it's fairly typical for temperatures, both daytime and nighttime, to average 7 - 15° above normal. Every single damn day!

Consider yourselves lucky you're getting a Winter at all. We're not.

[Myrina]

3. Except, it's not 'moisture' ... it's too frozen.

I'm sitting under a foot of snow and the humidity in my house is 27%, even with 2 humidifiers running nonstop because the temp is -15 with a windchill of -28.

[notadmblnd]

25. The kids were tossing pots of hot water up in the air last night

it evaporated before it hit the ground. That's how dry it is despite the 14 inches of snow we got here Sat/Sun.

[PasadenaTrudy]

5. Endless Summer here

So dry and weirdly hot. Wearing shorts and sandals in Jan. We need rain!

[surrealAmerican]

34. Sure thing. We can just load it into some trains ...

... and send it ...
.
.
.
.
... or, maybe we can't considering what this story has to say.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

4. This is a job for Tornado.

Steam train's snow rescue 'glory'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8428097.stm

Page last updated at 13:27 GMT, Wednesday, 23 December 2009

Passengers were rescued by a steam locomotive after modern rail services were brought to a halt by the snowy conditions in south-east England.
....

Tornado, a £3m Peppercorn class A1 Pacific based at the National Railway Museum in York, was in the South East for one day, offering "Christmas meal" trips from London to Dover.

Its "Cathedrals Express" service, the last mainline journey in its first year of operations, was about to depart when staff heard about the stranded passengers.

About 100 people were offered free seats, according to Mark Allatt, chairman of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust - the charity which built Tornado.

Darlington-built Tornado was unaffected by the freezing conditions

[dipsydoodle]

6. We had shit like that in the UK back in 1963

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1110038/A17ft-snowman-boats-locked-solid-ice--thats-I-big-freeze.html

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. Which brings to mind a famous film.

Snow (1963)
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1234415/

Snow was Geoffrey Jones' first film for British Transport Films (BTF) but it owes its existence to a happy twist of fate. In September 1962 Jones began his research for a film about design for the British Railways Board. Armed with a 16mm camera, he travelled throughout the country, shooting film 'notes' of anything he found particularly interesting.

Viewing the footage, Jones was struck by several images of black steam trains churning down the tracks against a glaring white backdrop, and hit upon the idea of making a new, separate film contrasting the comfort of the passengers with the often Herculean efforts of the workmen to keep the trains going in hazardous conditions. On January 31st, 1963 Jones met with BTF head Edgar Anstey. Realising that the film would have to be made quickly or delayed until the following winter, Anstey agreed straightaway and shooting commenced the very next day. Jones and his barebones crew proceeded to chase winter conditions across the country.

Unable to afford his first choice of music, 'Teen Beat' by American Jazz musician Sandy Nelson, Jones had British musician Johnny Hawksworth re-record the tune, expanding it to twice its original length by reducing it to half its original speed at the start and steadily accelerating the tempo over a period of eight minutes to a speed approximately twice as fast as the original. Daphne Oram of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop added various filters.

[RC]

10. Your post deserves its own OP

Not often a video gets my adrenalin going. This one did.

[dipsydoodle]

11. I'd not seen that before.

Thanks for posting.

He timed that well ! If he'd tried shooting footage in London in the late November of 1962 it would've been farcical - that was when we had the last of the London smogs and visibility was down to less than 6 feet at times.

That snow started just after Christmas day 1962 out of the blue - I walked home a few miles from a party and remember it well trudging along with just 4" that night. By the following morning there was a foot or so and it just kept coming - snowed until late March.

Details here for anyone not familiar : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_1962%E2%80%9363_in_the_United_Kingdom

[struggle4progress]

12. great little film!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. There's not much mechanized about that sort of work.

It's just a bunch of guys out there with shovels and railroad spike tools. A lot has changed in fifty years, but clearing switches still involves labor.

[struggle4progress]

14. You'd think somebody would have written a smartphone app for track-clearing by now

[mahatmakanejeeves]

15. There is.

Last edited Wed Jan 8, 2014, 10:02 AM - Edit history (1)

Attach the smart phone to the end of a broom handle. Use it as a shovel to remove four or five ounces of snow at a time. Takes ... oh, just about until the spring thaw.

[CFLDem]

35. Bwahaha

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. What an amazing video..

superb use of music.

thank you so much for sharing this, and I agree it should be its own OP.

[freshwest]

19. Fantastic footage. That made my morning. Good music track, too. Thanks. n/t

[JustAnotherGen]

31. Really really cool!

Thanks for posting that!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. Pour a hot cocoa before watching....

[Earth_First]

18. Wow.

I'd imagine driving that plow attached to the engine has got to be a little unsettling not being able to see what's ahead of you...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

20. With all the inertia you could hit a semi and it wouldn't knock over your drink.

[freshwest]

21. Oh, wow. So that goes on every year? Tough folks up there keeping the world going. n/t

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. They go all through the Rocky Mountain passes too....

Some railroads have snow sheds where there are regular avalanches.

[freshwest]

23. We have crews that go and fire off conscussion grenades or rounds to set them off during the winter

Last edited Tue Jan 7, 2014, 03:22 PM - Edit history (1)

for controlled avalanches. It's used as a preventative measure. It works pretty well, but sometimes, it does get on the interstate.

We don't have as much tunnels as some places, no doubt. But they have been proposed to prevent this.

I've driven under those avalanche tunnels in Colorado in February. Pretty cold stuff there.

[mrdmk]

27. Sometimes, even the professionals get into trouble!

&feature=player_detailpage

[mrdmk]

28. Twelve foot snow drifts for any train can be a problem

&feature=player_detailpage

[SamKnause]

26. Trains

Thank you for posting the videos.

I thoroughly enjoyed them and your suggestion of hot cocoa.

Both were excellent.

Stay safe and warm.

[madrchsod]

16. remote? i know that area.

there`s a road crossing or a road paralleling the tracks every mile.

it took time to dig out the roads to get to the trains.

[Brother Buzz]

24. Meanwhile, Sierra snow removal equipment sits idle

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

29. still not as bad as being stuck on the runway

at least the seats are bigger on the train!

[murielm99]

30. I am sorry that people were stranded.

But what is so fucking remote about Mendota? Who wrote this stuff?

[TygrBright]

32. Thank you! I was wondering that same thing.

It's just of I-39, and less than 10 min. from I-80. It's well within commuting distance from several large Chicago suburbs, including Aurora and Naperville.

It's not exactly Willard, NM.

wryly,
Bright

[CFLDem]

36. Probably the type of person

who thinks there's nothing between NYC and LA.