UNBELIEVABLE! Happened today!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFe0846RgWc

From the post:

"The tornado started at 3:30 pm about 1.2 miles north of Poplar Grove in Boone county and ended at 3:48 pm about 3.2 miles north northeast of Harvard in McHenry county.

The first signs of damage were at Quail Trap road where trees were damaged and sections of roofing were removed from a shed. A large barn was destroyed and other buildings were severely damaged. Large trees were snapped or uprooted. The tornado reached its maximum intensity of EF3 at the northeast corner of Centerville road and Beaverton road. A two story farm house and garage were leveled and large trees were stripped of all branches. The tornado was about 100 yards wide through this area.

There was damage to trees, power lines, barns, and sheds. The tornado then crossed the Boone/McHenry county line as a weak EF0 tornado with just minor tree damage at this point. It crossed Hunter road and continued to track northeast across Ryan road as an EF0 and caused mainly minor tree damage. It crossed White Oaks road then it uprooted a hardwood tree and snapped off pine trees at their base along Maxon road. The tornado intensified as it moved toward the town of Lawrence where it produced the worst damage. Significant damage occurred in the town of Lawrence particularly at a house that had more than half of its roof ripped off and garage blown out.

The tornado then moved across the Chicago and Northwestern railroad where it blew 12 railroad freight cars off the track. The train was moving at the time the tornado hit it...so as the main engine stopped...the remaining cars on the track continued along it and slammed into the front part of the train. This caused a few more cars to derail...including one containing hazardous materials that caused the evacuation of the town of Lawrence.

As the tornado moved east of Lawrence it once again started to weaken with some tree damage and shingles off of a few houses on the northeast side of town. It then ran along Oak Grove road for a stretch where it produced EF1 damage with a hardwood tree snapped at its base and knocked over an old...weakly structured barn with estimated winds around 100 mph. It then headed across farm fields and headed for hwy 14 where it damaged a metal barn and sheared a few trees. As it crossed highway 14 it flipped a semi-trailer and injured the driver at a truck stop weigh station."

AMAZING!

Bob

WOW!!!!!!

nice find....was afraid that tanker would blow up as it hit the engine.

looks like the engines were intact tho, hopefully the engineers were okay

Wow, that was incredible. Hope no one hurt. I wonder why the camera was mounted there?

Awesome! Makes you wonder what really would have happened to Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes (well, we know what happened to him!) in the movie "Twister".

Thanks for the post!

Bill

quote:

Wow, that was incredible. Hope no one hurt. I wonder why the camera was mounted there?

Cab-Cam for grade crossing incidents.

Bob

If anyone was in the trailing diesel, they would have to change their shorts after watching that tank car coming at them. One scary video, thanks for posting.

quote:

was afraid that tanker would blow up as it hit the engine.

I'm pretty sure the ends of the tank cars are double hulled.

Not sure about UP, but speed on BNSF manifests is 55, except when it it is a "KEY" train (hazmat), then 45.

Bob

WOW! The tanker was a scary sight. hope the crew was OK.

That is one pretty awesome video! Sure demonstrates what Ma Nature can do to man's creations when she has a mind to. Definitely not something I would want to experience. and, as other have said, I hope the crew is all okay. What a story they have to tell their kids and grandchildren.

Good example for how long it takes to stop a train with the emergency brakes applied! The power dragging two cars stopped quickly - but the kinetic energy of the rest of the train caught up with the head end - with the cars in a full emergency application!

Bob

I'm sure the crew sat there and said...what the hell ? Wow....thought that tank car was comin to get em !

Mike

Ironically (sp?) enough, 'Twister' was on TBS this afternoon!

Spectacular!!!

Thanks Bob

Wow!!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Allan Miller:

... and, as other have said, I hope the crew is all okay.

What a story they have to tell their kids and grandchildren.

... and the video to prove it !!!  
 

Incredible video. Thanks for posting.

Andy

WOW!

WoW, That was amazing.

Unbelievable footage. In Maryland...we're a long way from Kansas Toto. Oh My!

Here in Kansas we call that a microburst just sideways winds above 80 mph.

Probably a F1 tornado.

The stongest I have been in was a F3. And 1 minute later the sky was clear.

Brent

Yep, that's another wow! Reminds me of the cab video last year of the BNSF engine crash when another one rolled through the red light. You're helpless just to watch it happen. Joe

That is one amazing video!! Let's hope the crew and residents are all ok. That puts the wind strength into perspective more than the usually video of flying tree limbs.

Thanks for posting the link.

quote:

Originally posted by M.T.H.Bob:
UNBELIEVABLE! Happened today!
Bob

Just a small nit to pick: This did not happen today, as there have been no severe storm reports out of Illinois today or any tornado reports anywhere as of 22:12 CDT.
Severe storm reports

That said, now we all know it's true... it sounds like a freight train!

redrockbill

What an incredible video. Thank you for taking the time to post it here for all of us.

I would of really lost it seeing that tank car heading right for you with God knows what in it

Hey Bob;

Is this the same former C&NW line now UP Line that serves the Illinois Railway Museum, they are located on McHenry County as well.

Just wandering.

To add to that day, It was In the Middle of January, typical temps should be around 10 to 30 degrees, not the 70 degrees that it was that day, we had snow a few days latter

I wonder what it looked like ahead of the train at about 1:00 into the vid. I could see the trees bending over.

Wow, great video find. It goes to show you even a powerful locomotive is nothing when nature starts to kick-up.

Bob, that is awesome.

WOW! That was a really interesting video. Know we know what happens when a train goes into an emergency.

I havea couple of questions though:

Did the hopper flip from the tornado or the domino effect of the trailing freight cars?

I assume the sparks from the oncomming tanker were from the wheels and axles bouncing along the ROW

What was the power on the head end? sd60m's?

Would this new electronic braking that is SLOWLY being implemented could have prevented the tanker from flying into the locomotives?

Inquiring minds would like to know!

member: TCA

WOW, that was an incredible video. Thanks Bob for posting it.

Paul

The video was posted on July 3, 2009, the tornado happened, according to the author, on Jan 7, 2008, and yes, that is really weird to have a tornado in January in Northern Illinois.

I took a look on Google maps, the tornado was near Harvard, Illinois, the end terminus of the Metra NW line, and location of the ill-fated Motorola Harvard plant for the design and manufacturing of cell phones.

Great video. Thanks for posting, Bob.

Notice the changes in wind speed as seen in the trees in the background. Amazing.

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by C&O Railroader:
Hey Bob;

Is this the same former C&NW line now UP Line that serves the Illinois Railway Museum, they are located on McHenry County as well.

Just wandering.

I believe this occurred on the UP Northwest Line, Harvard Subdivision, which runs through Woodstock, Harvard and continues on to Janesville.
The UP line adjacent to the Illinois Railway Museum is a different line, which comes off the UP West Line at West Chicago, and continues past Union to Belvidere and Rockford. I believe it is known as the Belvidere Subdivision.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jay jay,

quote:

Originally posted by prrhorseshoecurve:

Would this new electronic braking that is SLOWLY being implemented could have prevented the tanker from flying into the locomotives?

Doubt it, as its still brake shoes on steel wheel to stop rotation. All electronic braking does is to provide even braking of all cars at once as a unit rather than waiting for air pressure drop to propogate from front to back that sets each car brakes up progressively front to rear. So even if the electronics gives the emergency dump air command you still dealing with all that built up kinetec energy. You know, Newtons law body in motion stays in motion until acted upon....

More info. My bad on the date.

From a UP employee:

"This was a Union Pacific train, APRPR, headed toward Janesville, Wisconsin, from Proviso. The correct date for the tornado was Monday, January 7, 2008. It was my day off, otherwise I probably would have classified many of the cars for this train, and watched it depart our yard earlier that afternoon.

Lawrence, Illinois, is near the Wisconsin state line in McHenry County (same county as the Illinois Railway Museum), just a few miles out beyond Harvard, the end of the Metra route. The train was traveling northwestward; the storm would have crossed its path from left to right, at nearly a 90-degree angle (approaching from the right in the video sequence we have). They had at most 15 minutes from the time the tornado formed several miles away. Plenty of time to stop the train had they been warned, but who's expecting an F2 tornado or even a severe rainstorm in January? I'm not sure that any public warnings were issued on this one.

Notice that it took about 60 seconds from the time they first encountered rain until the wreck finally settled. It was about 36 seconds from the start of the rain until the emergency application.

Yes, the train was put into emergency by the separation of the cars. And the tank car that rammed the engine did in fact contain ethylene oxide (pause the video in the right place and you can see the two placards, one white and one red, that are typical of ethylene-oxide loads).

I, too, was surprised to find out that cameras in other than the lead units are recording, but I was told by a road person that that is indeed the case.

Here's what still confuses me: that tank car should have been equipped with a double-shelf coupler, which should have stayed coupled to the car ahead of it. That should have been the least likely place for the train to separate."

Here is a rendering of a "Double Shelf Coupler":

http://www.greatlakesrailcar.c...lers/doubleshelf.jpg

Bob

We have had really calm nice weather in the Chicago area this last week, so yes the video was startling as to how it occurred yesterday.

Bob:

Very interesting and informative thread. Thanks for the post and clarifications.

Here's another one.......... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc4WPbmtK-o



Don

Holy pizza! Now THAT is scary!

Tornado can become so powerful that nothing can withstand it.I hope the train crew was o.k.Tornado is nothing to mess with.Thats the one thing you don't want to cross paths with.

I think that is the hairiest video, that I have ever seen.

I think it is common practice for freight trains to have buffer cars between the locomotives and hazardous material cars when possible. As that covered hopper turned over so easy, I feel it must have been a dead head and empty.
Al

This message has been edited. Last edited by: AL CLAIR,

quote:

Holy pizza! Now THAT is scary!

Dunno what is holy pizza but after watching the video I'm not too eager to order from Domino.

The Loco won.