Weather

[Terry Toenges]

Glad you Noreaster folks didn't get hit any harder than you did. Watching the Philly flooding now.

[Joe323]

Like the MTA I shut down service on my RR at 12 noon Yesterday and will resume tomorrow at 6AM lol Seriously hope everyone is well.

[ebtbob]

Good Evening All,

     I live in the NW subs of Philadelphia.   While I always get water in my basement during heavy rainstorms and I certainly did this weekend,  we really dodged a bullet.   We did not lose electricity,  so the sump pump did its thing.   In addition,  I put a nice tarp over the back basement door that extended out about two feet on three sides.   This kept the water out until an hour or so after the rain actually stopped,  so that was just ground water that finally built up to a point that it found its way inside.
     What really amazed me is the fact we had a saturated ground situation here because of all the rain we have had here over the past two weeks.   Before Irene got here I still had standing water in about three places from the last storm over a week before the hurricane.
      The dehumidifer is working well and there will be an operating session here on Wednesday night.   I was planning for the worst.   Even thought of digging out an old Uboat in case it was needed.

[jward]

here in pittsburgh, we barely got the clouds, but amtrak hasn't run in two days east of here, and the ns main is even more dead than usual for sunday & monday. those are the two slowest days of the week. but what i have seen are stone train heading east to help with the rebuilding efforts.

[Michigan Railfan]

I live in Metro Detroit but am taking a vacation in Chicago. Took Amtrak's Wolverine, and I'm glad the storms didn't come here! Wouldn't be good to be stuck somewhere longer than expected. I must say though, Union Station is impressive (anyone thats been there would know what I'm talking about)! But I'm also glad the storm weakened before it hit the most populated places in the Northeast. That's one of the reasons I don't really want to live by an ocean...

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Good Evening All,

     I live in the NW subs of Philadelphia.   While I always get water in my basement during heavy rainstorms and I certainly did this weekend,  we really dodged a bullet.   We did not lose electricity,  so the sump pump did its thing.   In addition,  I put a nice tarp over the back basement door that extended out about two feet on three sides.   This kept the water out until an hour or so after the rain actually stopped,  so that was just ground water that finally built up to a point that it found its way inside.
     What really amazed me is the fact we had a saturated ground situation here because of all the rain we have had here over the past two weeks.   Before Irene got here I still had standing water in about three places from the last storm over a week before the hurricane.
      The dehumidifer is working well and there will be an operating session here on Wednesday night.   I was planning for the worst.   Even thought of digging out an old Uboat in case it was needed.

Glad to hear you came through OK, Bob. No power loss at my place in Center City, either. Still, I had made a few preparations because in a high rise, if you lose power, you lose water, too. I'm on the south side of my building so I didn't even have much wind until the storm had passed and the winde swung around to the SW.

I live in Metro Detroit but am taking a vacation in Chicago. Took Amtrak's Wolverine, and I'm glad the storms didn't come here! Wouldn't be good to be stuck somewhere longer than expected. I must say though, Union Station is impressive (anyone thats been there would know what I'm talking about)! But I'm also glad the storm weakened before it hit the most populated places in the Northeast. That's one of the reasons I don't really want to live by an ocean...

It is! I spent quite a few hours in the Metropolitan Lounge there last week, waiting to board the Cardinal.

Amtrak is still messed up in the Northeast, though. No service from Philadelphia to New York until the water goes down and repairs are made in Trenton. Lots of service notices posted on the Amtrak web site as of last night, including the western routes (this has not been a good summer for the California Zephyr  ). I'm supposed to take a Keystone train to visit my dad this weekend; according to the web site Keystone trains are running between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, but I'm going to keep checking anyway.

[Michigan Railfan]

@Johnson Bar Jeff Very nice station it is. I came home today, 3 hours late on the Wolverine, but not because of weather, but because of Norfolk Southern. They're charging Amtrak to go at medium to high speeds on portions of their track, and Amtrak doesn't want to pay it. So instead we went 20 miles per hour alot of the trip... Not fun to be in a Horizon class car for seven hours...

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

@Johnson Bar Jeff Very nice station it is. I came home today, 3 hours late on the Wolverine, but not because of weather, but because of Norfolk Southern. They're charging Amtrak to go at medium to high speeds on portions of their track, and Amtrak doesn't want to pay it. So instead we went 20 miles per hour alot of the trip... Not fun to be in a Horizon class car for seven hours...

Ick. ...

Last week delays on the eastbound Western routes were even worse. Passengers who were on the Zephyr who were supposed to connect to the Cardinal in Chicago were put off the train in Galesburg and taken by bus to Indianapolis, where they boarded the Cardinal at midnight. At breakfast in the diner the next morning, a fellow passenger who was headed home to West Virginia told me it had taken all day to cross Iowa. No offense to Iowa, but, sheesh. ...

[jward]

for what it's worth, the trains are running again here, in both directions. some of the westbounds have been really short, but they are running so the floods and damage must be mostly cleaned up.

[maksevrod]

It's hot in Ukraine, very hot!

[RAM]

maksevrod,  Where do you live in Ukraine?

       
   

[Michigan Railfan]

Last week delays on the eastbound Western routes were even worse. Passengers who were on the Zephyr who were supposed to connect to the Cardinal in Chicago were put off the train in Galesburg and taken by bus to Indianapolis, where they boarded the Cardinal at midnight. At breakfast in the diner the next morning, a fellow passenger who was headed home to West Virginia told me it had taken all day to cross Iowa. No offense to Iowa, but, sheesh. ...

Wow. And I thought I had it rough... But it was my first time on a train, longest I've been in anything public transportation (excluding this trip) was a 3 hour plane ride to San Diego. I did get alot of good train footage though, which I'll be putting into a YouTube video of my vacation.

[RAM]

ebtbob, They make a jet pump that work off the the water supply.  It is a backup sump pump, in case you lose your electricity.