So apparently when rail cars full of dehydrated potatoes travel by train, the crumbly flakes fly everywhere and can get stuck to the wheels. Railroad workers, therefore, have to scrape the caked-on spuds off the wheels in order to make the cars run smoothly. When they don’t, the results can lead to horrific disasters.At least, that’s what Union Pacific is alleging in a lawsuit against Idahoan Foods, which makes one of the best substitutes for homemade mashed potatoes available, assuming one has no interest in ever mashing an actual potato.The AP

reports Wednesday that a February 2009 derailment of a Union Pacific train in Idaho that cost $242,000 in damages could have been caused when workers let too many nasty potato flakes build up on the wheels, which, in turn, caused the train to be unable to stop.The allegations seem perfectly believable, considering that mashed potatoes have also proved unable to stop the only slightly less powerful train that is Seattle Weekly editor Mike Seely.