High winds can blow railway trains off tracks and cause accidents.
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A 2008 tornado in Northern Illinois derailed a Union Pacific train. Dramatic footage of the event was captured by a camera mounted on the train. On April 27, 2015, a severe storm knocked several double stack cars off the track as a train crossed the Huey P. Long Bridge, New Orleans, Louisiana, with no injuries.
The accidents are often minor and rarely lead to death or injury, though some have led to major environmental disasters. About 1,000 derailments occur every year across the United States, according to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). In 2022, there were 1,044 instances of trains coming off their tracks.
When it rains, the tracks become slippery and the train must slow down in order to accommodate for the extra time the train will need to brake. The lack of friction that water causes will cause the conductor to slow the train so that braking won't take so long.
A total of 70 main-track derailments (Table 4) were reported in 2020, a decrease from the 2019 total of 93, and 16% below the 10-year average of 84 (Figure 6). Thirty percent of the 70 main-track derailments occurred in British Columbia, 20% occurred in Ontario, and 16% occurred in Alberta.
Track Defects are the Most Common CauseTrack defects emerged as the leading cause of train derailments. The significance of continuous infrastructure maintenance and inspections cannot be overstated.
Compared to other popular forms of travel, such as cars, ships, buses, and planes, trains are one of the safest forms of transportation in the United States.
The main reason is because buses and trains are enclosed spaces, so the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system has to be kept on to ensure proper air circulation for everyone on board.
It will depend on the initial momentum of the train (speed and/or weight) and what type of snow. Powder, like skiers love, will basically blow away. The opposite type is a hardpacked drift in a shallow cutting. The latter has been known to to derail a train, which then stops really quickly.
A penny left on the tracks is too small to derail a train. Don't try this out, though, as many people have been killed in the attempt. Public domain image, source: U.S. Farm Security Administration.
Both portable and permanent derails are tools that attach to the track, causing the train to slowly derail as it rolls over them. These safety measures are used in situations where it would be more dangerous to allow the locomotive to forge ahead, such as instances where a person or animal is blocking the track.