Garden Railway Forum

Having seen Aaron's post https://gardenrails.org/forum/viewtopic ... 55#p162855 regarding hailstone damage, I thought I would share some experiences with hail.
In 2009, on a trip to New Zealand, we went to pick up our hire car in Picton, on South Island. Anyone experienced with hire cars will be familiar with the palaver of checking for damage etc. After completing paperwork, the assistant took us to the parking lot where only one vehicle was left for hire. Can you imagine my surprise when we saw the whole vehicle looking like this? As it was the only car left, we had no choice but to take it, having made sure the damage was recorded. The young lady circled the car diagram and wrote 'hail damage - all bodywork'. Apparently it is not an uncommon occurrence. We at least didn't need to worry about thieves choosing our vehicle!
Even in the UK though, we see occasional instances of 'megahail'. In 2006, I had just returned from a week walking in the Lake District and was sat in my garden with my family enjoying a warm sunny afternoon (we lived in Coventry at the time, and I had not yet delved into the world of garden railways). Very suddenly, it went very dark as a black cumulonimbus drifted over the sun, and a fierce wind rose up. We dashed inside just before the heavens opened. Very quickly, the rain turned to hail, and what hail it was. Great lumps of ice started falling from the sky. Our Coroplast covered car port looked like it had been hit with shrapnel, and afterwards I collected some of the hailstones to photograph, in the hope of making an insurance claim (ha! some chance ) The thing of particular interest to me was that none of our cars were damaged by hail this size, and it just begs the question - what size are the hailstones that they are regularly subjected to in New Zealand that wreck so many cars?

Not New Zealand but near Bill in the Powder River Basic in Wymoing, USA (between Douglas and Gilette) my wife and I were enjoying (well, I was) a warm (30degsC) and sunny June afternoon photographing the many 15,000 ton coal trains. Heading back to our hotel I mentioned "It looks a bit black over there" but we kept going. Two minutes later we were enveloped by greeny-black clouds. It went as black as night. And then the hail started. The lumps were the size of a tennis ball and formed a thick layer over the road, making it impossible to drive. The first glass to go was the windscreen, which soon had many impact "stars" and huge cracks. We stopped and sat out the few minutes while the hail passed. Then the sun came out, the ice on the already hot road melted immediately, and we drove on to the hotel. Only three miles away, they had seen nothing of the storm. The hire car, with only 2500 miles on the clock, had every panel dented, including the trim around the windows.

I don't really do frightened, but when it was pitch black with lightning, thunder and hail I started to get there.

We called the hire company who were more concerned that we were safe rather than the state of their car. All covered by insurance, they told us to call in at any of the branches and swap the car. This happened at Billings, Montana. They gave us the keys to another car, told us to move our stuff over and never actually looked at the trashed vehicle.

Well I guess that answers my question Tony