If one lightning strike can cause this much trouble for the railroads, imagine what will happen if the communication links all go down for Y2K?? To quote Tom Cruise in Top Gun "This is not good, this is not good!"

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http://www.newsday.com/ap/rnmpne0c.htm _____________________________________

Lightning Strike Snarls Railroads

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- A lightning strike Thursday at a railroad communications center slowed or halted rail traffic -- including 11 Amtrak trains -- in parts of the East and Midwest.

Also affected were radio communications between train crews and dispatchers, a CSX Transportation spokesman said. The lightning struck a CSX communications center in Jacksonville, Fla.

The lightning strike at 5:30 p.m. knocked out the company's signal system between Chicago and Philadelphia, in portions of Michigan, and in the Kentucky-West Virginia coal region, said CSX spokesman Adam Hollingsworth.

``It slowed and, in some places, stopped rail traffic until the signal system could be restored,'' Hollingsworth said. ``In some areas, we were able to use portable signal equipment and cellular phones to safely keep the trains running.''

He said about 200 trains were affected by the outage, including 15 passenger trains operated by Amtrak and commuter lines Virginia Railway Express and Maryland Area Rail Commuter. CSX runs about 1,300 trains daily through the affected areas.

Amtrak, VRE and MARC operate on CSX-maintained tracks.

Steven Taubenkibel, an Amtrak spokesman, said none of the 11 affected Amtrak trains were delayed more than four hours. All of the delays occurred south or west of Washington, D.C., he said.

CSX restored its signal system about three hours after the lightning strike and expected to fully restore radio communications later in the evening, Hollingsworth said.

CSX, whose corporate headquarters is in Richmond, operates about 22,300 miles of railroad lines in 23 states, the District of Columbia, and Montreal and Ontario, Canada.

AP-NY-06-03-99 2307EDT

Copyright ) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

-- helium (heliumavid@yahoo.com), June 04, 1999

Answers

Why didn't they just go manual?

"HEYYYYYYYOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUU!!!!"

Mike ====================================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), June 04, 1999.

So lightning hits Jacksonville, and takes out signals as far away as Chicago. Not very localized, is it? <:)=

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), June 04, 1999.

Get ready, here comes that word I learned the other day, right here...

INTERTWINGLED!

-- R. Wright (blaklodg@hotmail.com), June 04, 1999.

Well, if this doesn't just make me want to run out and buy a train ticket for a cross-country ride home from the in-laws after Christmas!!

We did that once, actually. The trains ran 30 hours late, because the weather was so cold. Just add to that a few 'minor glitches' and I doubt there'll be anything moving up here. Something else to pray for - mild weather come 2000-01-01.

-- Tricia the Canuck (tricia_canuck@hotmail.com), June 04, 1999.

Maybe they could fill one boxcar on each train with bicycles.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), June 04, 1999.

Mike- ROFLOL!!! Made my night! Thanks :)

-- Gia (Laureltree7@hotmail.com), June 04, 1999.

Now Y2K will be causing lightning strikes?

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), June 04, 1999.

Cherri, please put your court jester hat on when you visit the forum.

-- a (a@a.a), June 04, 1999.

Cherri,

I know it may come as a surprise to you, but Y2K will be happening concurrently with all the "other" usual and unusual natural and manmade "disruptions" that go on in an ever changing world.

Question is, will it be the straw that breaks the camel's back in * some* (not all) local, state, national or international locations?

You do need to check out-side the box now and then, Cherri.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), June 04, 1999.

Cherri, In a word....thinkagain (one word? Oh Well). And this time you can use your crib sheet.

And I bet you'd look cute in that hat.

-- MidwestMike_ (midwestmike_@hotmail.com), June 04, 1999.

Excuse me? THE STORY SAYS THEY DID GO MANUAL: -------------------------------------------------------------- ``It slowed and, in some places, stopped rail traffic until the signal system could be restored,'' Hollingsworth said. ``In some areas, we were able to use portable signal equipment and cellular phones to safely keep the trains running.'' -------------------------------------------------------------- And the longer you work around such a problem, the better you get at it - and there I absolutely speak from personal experience.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), June 04, 1999.

The lesson isn't in the work-around's (good - alternative methods were used (nice "drill", it's more than what the power companies have done so far....but note that the alternatives did slow deliveries in a wide area) nor in the reason the comm's were lost (lightening now, perhaps phone satellite or power or relay problems next year).

The lesson is that losing communications affected a system NOT PREVIOUSLY thought vunerable to loss of a support system.

Now, look carefully, but did anybody predict railroad failures from a lightening strike? The interconnections will continue to surprise people who believe everything will continue to run - up until the systems stop. Dead.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), June 04, 1999.

... until the system stops. Dead.

Hmmm ... I guess in that case, it'll take 'em 6 or 7 hours to fix it, or maybe -- horrors! -- a day to come up with a workaround, instead of the 3 hours that were required here, right? :)

Robert, I like you, but your unwarranted pessimism is beginning to show.

-- Stephen M. Poole, CET (smpoole7@bellsouth.net), June 05, 1999.