jescott418 says:

I mad sense because the tree’s were blowing over the same as the train cars. Could have been straight line winds. Center of gravity cold have ben high on some cars and once you get a couple to go over the rest will follow.

Mark T. says:

I suppose that hopper car had to be empty. I started to wonder what it would take to topple a hopper car this heavy. I did a little research and found that a hopper car is probably about 63,000 pounds empty and measures somewhere around 15′ by 60′ on the side. That would make the side surface area 900 sq. ft. or around 130,000 sq. in.

If the track width is 4′ 8.5″ wide (standard in the States) then I figure that it would take 1,779,750 in-lbs (i.e. 28.25″ x 63,000 lbs) of torque to flip an empty hopper car.

Since the air load is going to create a focal point at half the height of the car (i.e. 7.5′ or 90″), you would divide the 1,779,750 in-lbs torque by 90 inches.

That means it would take a combined side air load need to overturn the car is 19,775 lbs. Finally, 130,000 sq. in. divided by 19,775 lbs means an average pressure of only 0.15 PSI.

0.15 PSI sure doesn’t sound like much. I hope I did that right. Anybody want to check my math?

Don’t f*** around with Mother Nature.

TrainDude says:

Much more information about the Train / Tornado event here …

http://centexrails.blogspot.com/2009/07/stormy-rails.html

Enjoy.