what happens to a train during an earthquake?

Question

do they derail?

Answer 1

Naturally, the proximity of the train to the earthquake's epicenter will have a profound effect.

Trains close to the epicenter will typically derail, but it won't be a catastrophic derailment, unless the earthquake is particularly strong on the Richter scale. The movement of the earth will bend the rails, driving them out of alignment and therefore out of operation.

As trains depend on the proper alignment of the rails, any misalignment will cause the cars to derail, and in this case, usually just "fall off" the rails.

Answer 2

Yes.About 2 years back the bullet train was derailed because of earth quake in Japan. The peculiarity in this incident is people normally think that the primary wave from earthquakes will not cause any damage. But this time what happened is that the rail track was just above the fault line. Therefore the vertical movement of the primary wave caused the derailment. luckily the train was old type so it was heavy and the speed was less than present modern bullet train.Therefore the damage was less. .

Answer 3

Earthquakes rarely (but occasionally) cause damage to the tracks. In October 2004, the Shinkansen (bullet train) in Japan derailed 8 of it's 10 cars due to an earthquake. There were no fatalities in that incident because safety features in those trains automatically shut it down as soon as an earthquake is detected. I think that derailment may have been caused by the shaking, but minor freight train derailments in the USA have been caused by buckled track from earthquakes.

The 1964 Good Friday earthquake in Alaska triggered tsunamis that actually swept freight cars and locomotives off the tracks in Seward Alaska railyards.

More typically, rock slides and structural damage to railroad bridges and overpasses is more of a concern from earthquakes.

Answer 4

If the vibration is sufficiently severe, especially if transverse to the tracks, the train could be derailed.

Answer 5

i think the shake