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IOWA – I used to live next to some train tracks in Provo during my college years. At first, I struggled to sleep as the ground rumbled and the horns blared. But I eventually got used to the commotion. This might sound crazy, but I think I actually slept better amid all that chaos than I do now.
In all those years next to the tracks, I saw some bizarre things. But I never saw anything like this amphibious train.
The Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa, was running extremely high — as are many of our Utah rivers at the moment — so the tracks were covered with water.
I know that trains are incredible machines, but I had no idea that they could navigate flooded tracks like this. How did the conductor know the depth of the water? It seems that the train could've hit a particularly deep area and gotten in real trouble.
But what do I know? I'm just a guy who loves the sounds of trains passing in the night. I wouldn't have the foggiest idea of how to drive one right through a flooded river.
