Lightning and Trainmen

Same as anywhere...every man for himself..use your head......the regular stuff..cr john

Thank you John.

Paul

It is enough to make one a bit nervous.  I've spent several evenings during thunderstorms shutting steam locomotives down for the evening and it does go through my mind that I'm standing on a giant piece of metal out in the open.  But as stated, it's essentially use your head and stay under cover as much as possible.  If possible, we've been lucky and have a storm roll through at the end of the day where we can complete all the servicing requiring us to be outside the locomotive, such as filling the water tank ahead of the storm to avoid being up on the tender deck with lightning in the area.

BNSF here in Amarillo stops the yard activity and gets all the Switchmen and Carmen to the building in advance of a thunderstorm that is expected to hit and produce lightening.  After the storm has passed, work resumes.  On the road, weather warnings are issued and employees govern themselves accordingly.

BNSF subscribes to Weather Data which monitors the territory served by the railroad and issues warnings to the Network Operations Centers where it is disseminated to the field.

In the 20th century, you were expected to use common sense and not make yourself a target for lightening.  Being on the ground in a lightening storm with large steel equipment near you is dangerous.

This poses a question. If you are on a passenger car and the car is struck, is there a ground strap to pass the electricity safely?

Also will electrical strikes wipe out signal systems, and crossing gates?

Since all railroad rolling stock is grounded through the steel rails, I am aware that during lightning strikes some have damaged the former C&NW ATC system. I also remember that lightning struck a Santa Fe GP60 and totally fried all the mother boards in the main electrical control cabinet (the unit was out of service for more than 6 months waiting for a complete new mother board sub-cabinet).

Thank you Tom, I was wondering about yard work where conductors are generally exposed to the weather.

Paul