Tsunamis

[FJ and G]

On the travel channel there was a show about Hilo, Hawaii, which experienced 2 tsunamis (tsunami is the only word in Engli***hat starts with tsu--the word comes from the Japanese). The tsunamis, the show stated, wiped out a lot of railroad tracks. From the palm tree lined city, you can gaze up at a snow-capped mountain.

The railroads of the big island, of course, were mainly sugar cane haulers; though they did haul defense materials during WWII.

I always thought that the big island would make a really neat scene for a model: with tiny sugar cane cars and steam engines and palm trees, mountains, and perhaps a giant tsunami wave.

Dave Vergun

[mls1621]

A recent acquaintance of mine is modeling the Hawaian sugar industry in G scale. I haven't seen his layout yet, but Gary Hoover told me that it's awesome. That kind of comment form him really means something.

[philnrunt]

FJ&G- & MLS- While not a steam fan per se, I bought the video Cuba Steam from Pentrex, and it has a ton of N-G lines running sugar and the such all over the island. Check it out .
Also, a friend recently brought over pictures his grandfather took while stationed on Hilo in the early 20's (18th Field Artillery) and he has some great shots of some sugar lines, engines, shops and rails running into cane fields. It looked like maybe 30" gauge.
Watching a N-G engine pull 8 beet or cane loaded cars, all rocking to beat the band on what looks like code 33 1/3 rail is pretty nifty. Keep us posted on your friends G line, I'd be interested in seeing his cane cars.
Dave- that would be an interesting RR, the time period could be 10 seconds before the end of sugar cane lines on Hawaii. Talk about specific! Also, let me know just how much Envirotex or EZ water it takes to model that wave and how you got it to stand 100 ft tall!.

[Anonymous]

I lived in Hawaii during the tidal wave that hit in 1960. Even though the term "tidal wave" is incorrect, this is what the common name for them was. This particular tsunami was caused by an undersea earthquake off the western coast of South America. They gave everyone a 12 hour warning. People that owned boats headed out to sea. This is because out at sea a tidal wave is just a swell. It's when it nears shallow water is when it begins building up. Unlike a normal wave who's energy is at the surface, the energy of a tidal wave is from the ocean floor to the surface. They travel at about 500 MPH. The water at the shore recedes and is drawn into the approaching wave. When the wave hits, it does not stop at the shore as do normal waves, rather it travels several miles inland. Everything in it's path becomes moving debry.

On the island of Oahu (the island where Honolulu is located) they have giant sugar cane fields. The fields are devided by fire breaks. When it comes time to harvest the cane, the fire department comes out and a portion of the field is set on fire. Everything burns except the stocks. The heat of the fire causes the syrup to rise up into the stocks. It is this syrup that they make the sugar from. After the fire is out, machines come out and pick up the remaining stocks. The fire breaks are placed there so as to burn only the parts of the field selected without burning the entire field.

Most of the fields are owned by C&S Sugar Co. (California and Hawaiian) The company's colors are pink and white. They have refineries both in Honolulu and in Los Angeles.

[FJ and G]

Very interesting. A survivor of a tsunami! At 500 mph, that is really some wave! You'd need a really fast car to outrace it. I don't know if this is true or not, but folklore has it that a surfer rode out the wave. Must have been some "hang10" ride!

Another interesting "natural event" to model would be a hurricane. I've seen one model layout (actually a toy train layout), that showed the aftermath of a violent thunderstorm, with downed trees & debris.

[Anonymous]

Tsunami is Japanese for "big wave in harbor" and geologicaly is refered to as a "seismic sea wave" caused by underwater erthquakes and mistakenly called tidal waves.
Bill

[FJ and G]

Actually a tidal wave would more correctly be a term used for a tidal bore, a giant (sometimes killer) wave caused by tides. A bunch of unlucky souls in China were sucked in by one a year or two ago in China.

[Anonymous]

Just go a little north to the Bay of Fundy in Moncton, New Brubswick and Truro, Nova Scotia to see the bore. Tides of 55+ ft.

[Anonymous]

Just thought of another modelling of water damage to a railroad and that was the destruction of the original town of Niland, CA and the flooding by the Colorado River that left a locomotive and three freight cars that are still there in the Salton Sea.

[FJ and G]

Bill,

Underwater modeling has been done effectively, using acrylic as the surface of the water and even for the cross view (so you can peer into the depths. Fish are placed on glass or plastic rods, tires and old cars thrown in on the seabed or lake bed, and why not a train as well.

There are several places in the US that have trains underwater, some caused by accidents; others by rapidly rising dam waters that overtook worker's attempt to rescue the trains.

Also, lots of trackage underwater including my own FJ&G, under the Sacandaga Reservoir in New York.

All good topics for modelers and you even can accurately include some railfans in diving suits exploring the trains.
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Although the Bay of Fundy has a heck of a tide, I don't know if there's a tidal bore. Quite possible, however. Tidal bores usually hit rivers. There's one in Laos or Cambodia that is the most famous. In the U.S. don't know of any.

[Anonymous]

Here in Georgia in 1974, a tornado that was rated as an F4 touched down near the edges of the freight yards in Atlanta. Forntunately, it was only on the ground for just a few minutes. However, during that short period of time it slung a few freight cars and an engine over an area of several yards. After that it then lost some of it's power and touched down again long enough to take the back porch off the governor's mansion. They estimated that when it did this, it's power had been reduced to an F2.

Now just think about this for a moment. Imagine standing there and seeing a diesel locomotive being slung across the ground. The power of some of these storms is incredible.

[philnrunt]

When National Geographic ran the article about the '64 quake and tsunami that hit Alaska, I remember the painting they had of the wave hitting the railyard and oil depot at Sitka. Had a GP and tanks about 30 ft above the ground heading inland behind a VERY scared looking dockworker.
Nature is so cool, no matter what man comes up with, nature keeps us in our place.
I've often wondered what it would be like to ride out a twister in a 90MAC or a hurricane in an aircraft carrier. Seeing film of the cyclone that hit TF58 in '45, it would be an E ticket ride!

[FJ and G]

I think the scariest ride would be to ride a train across an ocean during a Hurricane.

(1937 FEC RR across Ocean to Key West during the big blow)

dav

[philnrunt]

When we went to the Keys in March, we stopped at the Hurricane Memorial on (I think) Marathon and you are right. That would have been about as bad as it could get . You KNOW nothing around you is going to float, and that was a mighty long drop to the water.