Western Railroad Discussion > High wind topples UP double stack

Deja vu again .  High winds derailed UP train on the x-T&P near  Colorado City, Tx Tuesday during what must have been a severe thunderstorm..    Same thing happened very close to this one a year or so ago.
https://ktxs.com/news/local/high-winds-derail-train-cars-near-colorado-city.  Many thanks to a friend for forwarding this to me.. 

Judging by how far those containers are from the roadbed it appears empties heading back to Long Beach.  No word on the crew, hopefully they are ok.

        Crew okay ? ? ?    Very far fetched that the power would be blown over by winds as weight vs wind speed and surface area ( of the containers ) is much more.. Doubt they even felt anything in the power.

Think the last compable incident happened in New Mexico in March, 2019. My question is, doesn't the UP have a private weather service that they pay to warn them in advance about weather that can cause such disruptions? Or is that not considered a good investment in the age of PSR?

billywa

They do.

Where we work, some of these storms come up quick out in these areas.

The provider will alert the dispatch center when Hugh winds are detected and if it exceeds the train blow over speed, they will have the train stopped

In normalcy wind prone areas, wind sensors are installed for this.

4thDistrict Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They have been dragged away from the roadbed to
> make room for track repairs. The first thing they
> always do at a wreck site. 
>
> memphisfreight Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Judging by how far those containers are from
> the
> > roadbed it appears empties heading back to Long
> > Beach.  No word on the crew, hopefully they
> are
> > ok.

Yeah, pretty stupid observation on my part.   I asked about crew because news stories usually say whether anyone was injured or not.       

I can't remember this happening back in the days when boxcars were 40'6" il and 10'6" ih. I'm glad money is being saved. <G>