From the Weather Channel

[Joetrain59]

Train busting through drifted snow. https://weather.com/news/trending/video/minnesota-snow-couldnt-stop-train-from-chugging-along
 Joe D

[C855B]

Hmm. This was the kind of move that stranded an Amtrak train (Southwest Chief?) four or five years ago outside of Galesburg. They tried to power-through a large drift and toasted traction motors (or something major, electrically-speaking). IIRC they were stuck for three days, ran out of food - even the dreaded "emergency stew" - and let's not mention the honeypots. Similar to this week's episode with the Coast Starlight, but twice as bad. We had dinner on a SWC later in the year with a young lady who was on the Galesburg train. She said, yes, it was as bad as was reported in the news. Yet she was still riding the train after experiencing such a major management screw-up? She shrugged her shoulders.

[MK]

At first it looked like an avalanche.

The difference between this and the Amtrak is perhaps maybe the number of MU'ed locos on the BNSF...more power?

[DKS]

Yet she was still riding the train after experiencing such a major management screw-up? She shrugged her shoulders.

How many times is it likely to happen to the same rider?

[C855B]

How many times is it likely to happen to the same rider?

A repeat of the exact incident? Unlikely. As indicative of a systemic problem with the service? A-yup.

[Maletrain]

How many times is it likely to happen to the same rider?

Probably depends on where that rider rides.  Frequent traveler by train in the snow belt might get to have this opportunity more than once, if that rider doesn't think to delay a trip when the probability presents itself.  On the other hand, frequent riders in Florida are unlikely to have to endure such an event at all, at least until the current bout of global warming is over.

[diezmon]

The snow stopped this one. 

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[davefoxx]

That was a cool video, but I have to admit that as soon as I saw it was a link to The Weather Channel, I knew it would be inundated with ads.  Gotta love a thirty-second ad to watch a five-second video clip. 

DFF

[C855B]

What I like is the misunderstanding of the situation in the caption: "But the engineer did have to keep the horn blowing, so it wouldn't get clogged with snow."

No, you moron, the horn was being blown continuously, per rules, as a warning to all in the vicinity that the train was moving at speed through a blind situation, so get out of the f'in' way.

[diezmon]

here's the uncut version.   This was in also in one of my local MN rail groups.

[sd45elect2000]

What I like is the misunderstanding of the situation in the caption: "But the engineer did have to keep the horn blowing, so it wouldn't get clogged with snow."

No, you moron, the horn was being blown continuously, per rules, as a warning to all in the vicinity that the train was moving at speed through a blind situation, so get out of the f'in' way.

Nope, If you don't use the horn in heavy snow you will lose it entirely.

[C855B]

OK, I'll accept both.

[chuck geiger]

https://www.npr.org/2019/02/26/698089129/180-amtrak-passengers-on-the-move-after-36-hours-stranded-in-oregon-amid-heavy-s

[davefoxx]

Nope, If you don't use the horn in heavy snow you will lose it entirely.

One thing's for sure: that horn was definitely muzzled by the snow.  It was barely audible as to what it would normally sound like.

DFF

[nkalanaga]

The Coast Starlight passengers were never in any real danger.  They had lights, heat, food, etc, although the food was running low by the end, and they were out of diapers.  The main reason Amtrak didn't put them up in motels is that the town they were stuck in didn't have power, or enough motel rooms.

The big problem for the Coast Starlight wasn't the snow, but fallen trees.  All the horsepower in the world won't get a train through a Cascades Douglas Fir.