Count freight train vibrations trigger mudslides?

I was lying awake during the 3 a.m. hour recently, when I became aware of an intense shaking throughout my entire house. I had enough time to get up, look through the blinds for a street sweeper or operating carpet cleaning truck, verify that the dryer had stopped, and get back into bed before I considered that it might be a train approaching from a distance.

It was still a while before I heard the first whistle that confirmed my suspicions. The train in question must have been coming with so much momentum that it set up vibrations literally minutes before it passed through. When I suggested to the authorities that perhaps such a passing train may have given recent landslide the last little nudge that they needed to get going, my idea was politely dismissed.

Yet, one has to entertain the notion that anything that could potentially mimic a minor earthquake can’t be so lightly dismissed. I often wonder if the slight shifting of the shims that fit between my house and its piers might be the result of all the shaking provided by the more momentous trains as they pass.

Thomas J. Munyon

Marysville

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