News Wire -- teens manage to survive in East Galesburg

[Anonymous]

The suction from a passing train can be disasterous. Many years ago a pipeline was being laid along the Southern Pacific ROW near San Francisco. A commuter train came by at track speed and all of the workers stepped safely back. The problem was a joint of pipe was being held by a catepillar side beam crane. The suction pulled the pipe into the train and killed a couple passengers. Now thr rule is to lay the pipe down on the ground when a train passes and the trains slow down through areas with construction.

[trainfan1221]

I never did anything that dumb when I was a kid, though there would have been opportunities. We did stop a train once, though, by putting an old fan on the tracks to be crushed. The engineer thought better of it, and since the train was just leaving a station it was easy enough to stop in time. I knew it was a bad idea, (though it wasn't mine anyway!)