Railworks America

So. I have a science question. What happens to the crew on a train when the train inevitably get's struck by lightening from time to time? It's a steel behemoth, on steel wheels, on steel rails. Steel is a metal, and metal is a conductor of electricity. It's not like a car where the tires route the electric charge to the ground. So what happens? How does the crew not get fried in their seats?!

Thanks.

5292nate wrote:So. I have a science question. What happens to the crew on a train when the train inevitably get's struck by lightening from time to time? It's a steel behemoth, on steel wheels, on steel rails. Steel is a metal, and metal is a conductor of electricity. It's not like a car where the tires route the electric charge to the ground. So what happens? How does the crew not get fried in their seats?!

Thanks.

Tires are made of rubber, which doesn't conduct electricity, so they wouldn't route the charge to the ground, quite the contrary. However, the charge is so strong that arcing happens anyway and the lightning "jumps" over or through the tire (from the steel rim of the wheel) to ground. Steel wheels in contact with steel rails provide a clear route for the charge to reach ground. In either case, the occupants are unlikely to suffer injury if they aren't touching anything metal. The charge goes through the sheet metal body.

It works just like a car or airplane getting struck by lightning. The body of the vehicle forms a protective cage and as long as any occupant isn't touching anything conductive, they won't be harmed.

Almost all cabs today on newer motive power have isolated cabs by using rubber blocks between the cab and body. I know this is for sound, but it may help in the event of a strike.


For those of us in a steam engine, I guess the outcome would be different

No, There is no danger to occupants of a vehicle.
There's the Faraday cage effect, and there's the tendency of electricity to follow the path of least resistance, which is through metal and not through humans, which are ugly bags of mostly water.

Thanks guys! Chacal! You made me laugh!

The metal doesn't exactly protect the occupants by routing it around them.
What really happens, is that the occupants are at the same electrical potential as the metal. Being at the same potential keeps electrons from transferring from the metal body of a vehicle, to the human body.
To create current, which is what fries a person, you need a difference of potential and voltage to be present. The violent and sudden movement of electrons is what shocks and fries you.
It's also why helicopters can be used to work on power lines. They fly up and attach a line from aircraft to the high tension line, which puts the copter, lines and crew at the same potential. Then they just sit there and work on it while being exposed to upwards of 500kv.