A Freight Train Comes Out Second Best

It’s been around a while, but I just came across this recently. It’s a startling bit of video that graphically demonstrates what can happen when a tornado intersects with a moving train. It was taken from a rear-facing camera mounted on a locomotive hauling a Union Pacific freight near Harvard, Illinois, in January of 2008. Take a look … and fasten your seat belt!

Quite incredible, isn’t it! Especially considering that a moving freight train has all that momentum and can weigh as much as 10,000 tons. Clearly, this tornado-train collision created a big mess, but very fortunately no one was injured.

The word is terribly over-used, but in this case “awesome” certainly applies to the power of a tornado.