Eastern Railroad Discussion > Buffalo Snow

BNSF and UP should gather up all the hopper cars they can find and send them to the Buffalo, NY area.  Load them up with snow, then send them down to the Southwest and let them melt until they are empty again.

They did that during the Blizzard of 1977.  That lasted 2 weeks.  Hopefully this one will be done by Saturday.  We got 48" over a 24 hour period.  I did here a train whistle while I was out trying to clean the drive way tonight.  The CSX Waterlevel route is a mile from my house.  I wonder if it was a plow train?

But the southwest wasn't having a serious drought back in 77, so they just sent them anywhere south!
Go

Or we could just let it melt and stay within the Great Lakes Basin where it belongs.

Posted from iPhone

I can't speak for NS ops through Buffalo but per the Fairport NY rail cam train log, 22 CSX road freights originated, terminated, or passed through Buffalo for the 24 hour period at the height of the storm at Buffalo. Note the absence of the usual 8 Amtraks that pass the Fairport cam.

Here are a couple of North East PA (along Lake Erie about 75 miles southwest of Buffalo) rail cam captures of CSX westbounds that had passed through Buffalo some time Friday. And there were many more CSX freight movements at North East between 1700 Friday and 0500 Saturday 11/19/22.

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kevink Wrote:
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> Or we could just let it melt and stay within the
> Great Lakes Basin where it belongs.
>
Removing a few trainloads of snow from the rail lines around Buffalo is not going to disrupt the lakes' ecology.
 

toledopatch Wrote:
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> kevink Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Or we could just let it melt and stay within
> the
> > Great Lakes Basin where it belongs.
> >
> Removing a few trainloads of snow from the rail
> lines around Buffalo is not going to disrupt the
> lakes' ecology.
>  

Or help out anywhere experiencing drought conditions.

I imagine KevinK was referring to the "principle of the thing." There have been all sorts of ill-considered proposals to send Great Lakes water out west by proponents who can't imagine that the eternal growth paradigm for the West will ever need to be reconsidered. Things are about to get very real and I totally understand people in the Great Lakes region wanting to object to any proposals to move water out of the region. 

And we are STILL having trouble just moving the FREIGHT from Point A to Point B.....??!!

Posted from Android

toledopatch Wrote:
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> Removing a few trainloads of snow from the rail
> lines around Buffalo is not going to disrupt the
> lakes' ecology.
>  
A few trainloads of snow aren’t going make any impact to the drought out west. So why do people keep proposing to do so?

Posted from iPhone

And there are proposals to move water from the Missippi River to the west. It would seem they wouldn't want it when it floods...

Victor B.

Soo715 Wrote:
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> I imagine KevinK was referring to the "principle
> of the thing." There have been all sorts of
> ill-considered proposals to send Great Lakes water
> out west by proponents who can't imagine that the
> eternal growth paradigm for the West will ever
> need to be reconsidered. Things are about to get
> very real and I totally understand people in the
> Great Lakes region wanting to object to any
> proposals to move water out of the region. 

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> And there are proposals to move water from the
> Missippi River to the west. It would seem they
> wouldn't want it when it floods...


But the Mississippi is currently very low on water.

During flood season, the pipe would need to be bigger than huge. I'm visualizing the vortex that is sucking in stuff for miles around.

TAW

But some flood control projects use reservoirs to contain flood waters. Perhaps a few of them could be built along the Mississippi and the flooded water diverted from the reservoirs to a series of feeder pipelines to pipelines west?

Victor B.

TAW Wrote:
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> wabash2800 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > And there are proposals to move water from the
> > Missippi River to the west. It would seem they
> > wouldn't want it when it floods...
>
>
> But the Mississippi is currently very low on
> water.
>
> During flood season, the pipe would need to be
> bigger than huge. I'm visualizing the vortex that
> is sucking in stuff for miles around.
>
> TAW



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/22 19:08 by wabash2800.

zars Wrote:
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> BNSF and UP should gather up all the hopper cars
> they can find and send them to the Buffalo, NY
> area.  Load them up with snow, then send them
> down to the Southwest and let them melt until they
> are empty again.

Not when diesel is $6/gallon...

SpringedSwitch Wrote:
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> zars Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > BNSF and UP should gather up all the hopper
> cars
> > they can find and send them to the Buffalo, NY
> > area.  Load them up with snow, then send them
> > down to the Southwest and let them melt until
> they
> > are empty again.
>
> Not when diesel is $6/gallon...


The way the large Carriers figure out fuel costs is a little different than what it is for you and me.

The bigger problem(s) is the inability to move the freight NOW (for various reasons)..?!?! This and any "help" won't even come close to a "drought buster".

Posted from Android