Snow Surprise... Amtrak at Rhinecliff

Thought that you would like to see this awesome video.... I am pretty sure that many of you already saw on the facebook but there's others who aren't on facebook..

A good healthy snow shower for these waiting passengers.... It shows that these people have no common sense of what is about to happens....

It happened at Rhinecliff station yesterday

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V-Cb9x70gYQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Shame on the people standing up to the edge, but even the poor folks standing back don't have anywhere to go. That's my go-to Amtrak stop, and it's not exactly a wide platform, haha. Of course I think I'd be waiting behind the concrete abutment that's at the bottom of the stairs that day .

And a bunch of them standing there taking video with their phones, oblivious to what is about to happen.

One person on another forum thought that snow might just have come from the platform in the first place...

It did. One can easily observe where a snowblower had passed and thrown the snow on the ROW. A plow might have been a better option for snow depths as high as this storm dumped. Push it and pile it up at each end of the platform.

tree68 wrote:And a bunch of them standing there taking video with their phones, oblivious to what is about to happen.

One person on another forum thought that snow might just have come from the platform in the first place...

See how neat cut on the snow? What could do that? of course, snowblower... Obviously not WHOLE snow in track were from platform. Natural snow and drift fall into that track space plus the snow from platform thrown by snowblower...

use snow blower that can shoot it across the track not those little torro units that barely throw 12 feet.

DutchRailnut wrote:use snow blower that can shoot it across the track not those little torro units that barely throw 12 feet.

Yep, the one I have at home will throw the snow over 40 feet.

DutchRailnut wrote:use snow blower that can shoot it across the track not those little torro units that barely throw 12 feet.

Way too logical an idea.

Ken W2KB wrote:

DutchRailnut wrote:use snow blower that can shoot it across the track not those little torro units that barely throw 12 feet.

Yep, the one I have at home will throw the snow over 40 feet.

not if you have roof above platform and track - they had to shoot them at low, not high in air to avoid roof and some kind of structures over track which I cant identify what it is..

DutchRailnut wrote:use snow blower that can shoot it across the track not those little torro units that barely throw 12 feet.

And you can see chunks of snow on top of drift... where would these chunks of snow come from????

My friend from TX sent me a youtube video. But it was only the slow motion vid. But when I clicked on the link in this thread and then saw the second video in normal speed, I can see why they passengers didn't get out of the way. The train was moving at a good clip and not cutting any snow [no advanced visual warning, you can see the rails just before the platform] until he gets to the platform. At 40 MPH [guessing] and hits the pile of snow at the platform, doesn't really give a human enough time to see it, comprehend it, and then react to it. It might be two or three seconds from the time he hits the snow and the people react. Too late.

The snow blower definitely contributed to this. It is apparent that the snow was blown to the other side of the track[chunks]. But this probably made things worse because as the new snow fell, and it being driven by the wind, the blown snow acted like a snow fence and piled it up even deeper. Remember, you can see the rails before he enters the platform.

EDIT: Add text-I tried to find the second video that I mentioned above but You Tube has shuffled the list and I can't find the one I saw. But there are others.

Everyone:

After replying to this topic in the Amtrak Forum (perhaps these two could be combined) I will ask:

How low is the Rhinecliff platform? Is the platform at crosstie level or a foot high or so off ground?

Are stepboxes always required for boarding and if so are they always on the platform?

This may have all been different had the snow been thrown over the track during the clearing
operation as pointed out and perhaps had the engine crew had any idea how deep the snow was
on the track the horn could have been blown as a warning to step back.

Passengers on the platform not paying attention until it was too late - like the woman standing
near the safety line - was a factor to what happened here. A warning - and some common sense
to STAND BACK could have been made by a station employee perhaps.

This was an accidental type of situation and not deliberate in any sense of the word.

MACTRAXX

Mactraxx,
Are you a moderator or something? Why do you always seem to dictate where a story should be posted. You did the same thing to my post awhile back and here you are again trying to change this.

As passengers they more than likely have not known what was going to happen. Experienced Amtrak employees there would have and IMO failed to do their duty. They had an obligation to warn the people on the platform. Who knows what could have been in that snow. Someone gets hurt or worse and guarantee Amtrak is on the losing side of a hefty lawsuit.

I never look at the Amtrak forum but did look at this thread. No harm whatever in having it in both places.