If someone had told me that tumbleweeds could stop a coal train, I would have said "yeah, right, no way.”

That  was until I received this email with several pictures to prove it.   Evidently the train was going 15 mph and the wind was blowing about 50 mph when they ran into thousands of tumbleweeds.  The train came to a dead stop in about 5 car lengths.  The tumbleweeds blew under the drivers and they lost all their traction, just dead in the water.

They had 3 engines and got  2 more engines off another train.  Still couldn’t move.  They were stuck there for 5 1/2 hours until they could finally back down the hill and clear off the tracks.  Mother nature can be so cool.

Technorati Tags: tumbleweed, train, coal train, train engine

 

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