# What kind of storm could do this to a layout?



## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

A couple of nights ago we had a storm. No big deal - we get a lot of storms from time to time.

Yesterday I happened to look at the Caboose Layout and I soon realized that something WEIRD had happened.











The layout is 12' x 40' and within this relatively small area it is obvious that the winds blew cars down from the north, from the south, 
from the east and from the southeast - all in one storm!!!































It is as if a mini-tornado had centered on the layout.

I have not looked closely but I did not notice any damage (I did not want to move anything until after I had photographed it).

Jerry


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## sbaxters4 (Jan 2, 2008)

at the very least it was some swirling winds.... pretty impressive though...


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

I live in a bowl on the side of a hill, I get swirling winds all the time and have experienced rolling stock blown over in different directions as well as shifting cars to new locations... 

Out here we call them dust-devils, mini whirlies that spin off a larger wind. 

I've had a coupler ripped off the car and stay with one left on the track... 

John


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Ah, the wind plays havoc with anything not anchored down. This happened to my frt yard and the storm wasn't even that bad. 










Glad you didn't have any more damage than you did. 

Randy


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

Either:


1. The wind just eddied. (likely)
2. Different cars blew down during different times as the storm passed with a cyclonic wind. (also likely)


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## Dave F (Jan 2, 2008)

It must have been a 1:29 scale F4........


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

And the squirrels are sitting up in the tree laughing themselves silly at you wonder at the disorder they did when they were playing chase around the trains that morning!


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## blueregal (Jan 3, 2008)

"SPOOKS" MOST LIKELY HAH LOL THE REGAL


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## jebouck (Jan 2, 2008)

Might nodda been wind.
Cats and ***** get into my layout and knock cars over all the time.
Just for fun.


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## NTCGRR (Jan 2, 2008)

Racoon walking around. 
or all those telephone poles exspanding at once.


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## Duncan (Jan 2, 2008)

Well, if yer tables woulda been level, it might notta been so bad... 

Buildin' on a hill like that, ya gotta take into account the levelin' of the platforms...


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By NTCGRR on 06 Aug 2009 07:47 PM 
Racoon walking around. 
or all those telephone poles exspanding at once. 

Hi Marty,

Actually Raccoons were my first thought as they had been nightly visitors until about a month ago (I guess their favorite food is once again available elsewhere).

I put the telephone poles up specifically for the purpose of keeping rolling stock on the track (that is why they are spaced so closely). Later I decided on a better precaution so I now leave the rolling stock on the mains so they can fall over without needing the poles to hold them.

I realize you were probably joking but your comments were not far from true.

See you next week in KC.

Cheers,

Jerry


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Mainly I wish I had been there and watching when the storm hit. Unfortunately the storm hit early in the morning. I heard it but by the time I got up the storm had passed. 

It would have been really interesting to see the storm do what it did to the layout especially since there was no apparent damage.

Jerry


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

methinks.....


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Jerry,

I hafta confess, I came home from work one weekend and my mother insisted that there'd been a tornado in her garden and it had pulled up several of her newly-planted tomato plants. I jeered her out. (This was a looonnng time ago.)

As the years have passed I've seen/heard of a few other instances of what one could call a mini-tornado doing damage on a very small scale, relatively. While I'm not a believer, exactly, I'm sure not a disbeliever anymore. Sorry Mom.

That's the simplest explanation for what we see--Occam's Razor. (The simplest explanation is usually the most accurate.)

Les


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

I have the same problem around 3 in the after noon. That is when the Desert winds blow. Iips my trains over all the time. I was going to build a storage yard under the back porch but the winds go there too. All my bridges have some kind of sides on them to keep the trains from falling to the ground.


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