I did not get pictures but thought this might merit as a news item.
Best guess, trying to reconstruct events, a squall line of thunderstorms came through the museum site about 10-11 last night. It appears that the trolley wire near Barn 8 got a hit and the current traveled inside the building to our newly installed safety switch and disconnect. It totally destroyed that, a pile of molten metal in the bottom of the charred case.
Then it blew a hole in the back of the case and blew a hole through the metal barn siding. From there the metal siding conducted the strike to the corner trim (all fasteners at the joints burned), then to the door trim (some burning at the lower hinge) and into ground.
When it blew through the building wall some of the wood timber and framing caught fire but self extinguished. Also puzzling is that both of the five bulb clusters indicating barn power is energized had exploded bulbs, or bulbs blown completely out of the sockets, and the fuses for those were burned. Either the current got there from ionized air inside the cabinet or a second branch of the lightning jumped the outdoor section insulators to get inside. Those are only designed to insulate against 600 volts, far below the potential of lightning, but we may never know.
So for now, no 600 volt service is possible to Barn 8 and cars inside are in effect stranded. They might be able to be pulled out with a locomotive, or moved with a heavy stinger, but there is no other place to store them, and this cumbersome process would have to be reversed at night.
Damage maybe in excess of $2K-3K and a significant lead time if we are to order and replace the cabinet, cables, fuses, etc.
Bob Kutella
Comments
Fri, 08-18-2017 00:52
Hi John T, We would love to have a copy of your Ohio crane information. Please contact Mark Secco concerning anything about rail bound cranes. Thank [...]
Fri, 08-11-2017 00:05
Randy, The 543 was never in that paint scheme. It'll likely be restored to the zebra stripe scheme whenever it does get restored. Jamie
Thu, 08-10-2017 17:46
If you ever get the money to repaint this engine, I would hope you would repaint it to have the big letters Santa Fe instead of the small print. [...]
Thu, 08-10-2017 10:38
I would like to know if these MR #649 and #542 were part of FEVR excursion in Nebraska? Awesome to have them to be part of IRM collection!
Sat, 08-05-2017 23:30
They need to restore Milwaukee road 33 and 37c along with the 3 Milwaukee road f units hey have
Wed, 08-02-2017 20:01
It was supposed to be restored and sat behind the NS Altoona shops for the better part of two years, waiting for that to happen. We finally had it [...]
Tue, 08-01-2017 02:42
those 2 Milw cars would actually look good behind one of the Milw F7's or the E9's.
Sat, 07-29-2017 22:02
I just donated to the Save the 800 campaign. Should the campaign fail, I would like my donation re-directed to ATSF FP45 #92 please. Please tell the [...]
Sat, 07-29-2017 13:14
I see Conrail 4601 has finally arrived. I suspect a cosmetic restoration and getting donations to put it in a barn are in order?
Sat, 07-29-2017 01:51
It was restored at Altoona before coming to Union from the Essex, CT area. BTW, is or was it going to be restored as a Virginian engine? or kept as a [...]
Fri, 07-28-2017 11:54
It appears to be the E33 that IRM aqquired a year or two ago.
Thu, 07-27-2017 14:06
What is the 4601 locomotive parked in front of the diesel shop?