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5 Comments

  1. Railroads.

    Fortunately modern rails are welded together making derailments much less likely. However, the use of acetylene cutting torches, thermite, and other tools that are not readily available to terrorists, could cut through these rails.

    1. re:
      rail vulnerabilities

      On their best day, the railroad system is a ‘train-wreck waiting to happen’.
      The force-multiplier of supply disruptions cannot be over-stated.

      ‘Yes’, a lot of dedicated professionals work 24/7 to keep the trains rolling.
      And part of my youth was invested parked along the railroad tracks near the rail-hub of Roseville California.
      We watched for red-hot over-heated brakes on wood railcars coming down from the Sierra Nevada mountains, the rail-hub of Reno, and points east.
      Flaming floors got extra points!

      In the early 1970s, a train carrying military bombs detonated at the Roseville yard operated by Southern Pacific.
      The explosions of 250s and 500-pounders blew homes off foundations for miles around.
      I lived seven miles away over a hill from the reservoir at Folsom dam (the Folsom penitentiary was made famous by Johnny Cash), and I felt the shockwaves through the ground!

      As late as mid-2020, remodeling of the Roseville yard uncovered 1970s unexplored ordnance driven deep into the earth by their exploding brethren and sistern.

      a)
      Saboteurs can be other than human.

      Here in Oregon, the place is infested with the yuge rodents known as ‘nutria’.
      A rat the size of a raccoon, they are notorious for tunneling into banks, collapsing roads and levees.

      b)
      Although I enjoy the romanticism of the olden-times rail-travel, I cannot see depending on such a single-source obvious target of terrorists.
      Rail hubs such as Eugene Oregon are obvious targets for disruption of suppliers such as petroleum and forestry products.
      How did your car or truck get manufacturer-to-dealer?

      c)
      In places like central and south America, trains are routinely de-railed by looting gangs… or simply for the entertainment of bored peasants.
      Late-2020 fUSA has plenty of bored peasants.

      d)
      The Indian (curry, not casino) rail-system is ruled by bureaucrats operating by the time-tested ‘bribes’ method of equipment maintenance.

      1. Editors,

        a)
        Thank you for changing my ‘Sahara Nevada’ mountains’ to ‘Sierra Nevada’, but as kids in the Sahara Nevada foothills, we always called them the ‘Saharas’ because of the dry forests.
        After the frequent forest fires, the name ‘Saharas’ seemed particularly appropriate.

        b)
        Referencing the newly-discovered 1970s bombs in the Southern Pacific railyard, I believe my use of ‘unexploded ordnance’ is accurate, although ‘unexplored’ is pretty nifty, too!

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