tree68 We had a couple of fellows who bought tickets one afternoon (rare that any were even available) for one of our Polar trains. They clearly didn't fit the demographic. We conferred with law enforcement, let them finish the ride, and on their return, they were given tickets to where they really wanted to go (on Amtrak) and sent on their way...
We had a couple of fellows who bought tickets one afternoon (rare that any were even available) for one of our Polar trains. They clearly didn't fit the demographic.
We conferred with law enforcement, let them finish the ride, and on their return, they were given tickets to where they really wanted to go (on Amtrak) and sent on their way...
Johnny
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Last month a train was stopped 3 miles from the house and 3 passengers removed. I was recovering from surgery and didn't feel like being nosy. They ended up in the county jail. The odd thing is they were from different states (tx and ny were two) and included at least onefemale. Even this little 'hiccup" delayed trains for hours.
One might wonder if they thought the syrup would be warmer than the great outdoors and didn't realize how difficult it would be to get out.
The question would be whether the manhole was secured (obviously from the outside) when the manager went to it...
Reminds me of the great Boston Molasses "explosion."
Deggesty BaltACD zugmann I once ran a slop train 80 or so miles with a pair of people sleeping in the gondola. PD and trainmasters chased them out once they were discovered. I was impresed that I didn't wake them up. Guess my train handling was smooth that day. Another incident I was swithcing in the yard with remote power. Middle of the night - deep in the yard (near nobody). I look up and there's a dude straddling two boxcars with cushion drawbars. Nearly scared the crap out of me. I yelled at him in language a lot more colorful than I usually use and he ran off. PD came around, but he disappeared into the night. I guess he was into train surfing. Still, those cushion drawbars are looong, and remotes are NOT smooth. The tank car load was supposed to have more than enough product on board to satisfy the tank truck that was there to receive a load - but no product would flow from the tank car that was being warmed with steam with the 10 degree ambient temperatures. The TBS Manager mounted the tank car and opened the top manhole and found the problem - a human body was blocking the discharge port. Police were called and the body was 'fished' from the car through the manhole. Upon making contact with the 10 degree ambient air - the corn syrup on the body almost immediately crystalized and froze the body in position. Coroners personnel hauled the body away. Never did find out anything more, like who the person was, how they came to be in the car, if being there was accidental or criminal. Scratch one tank car of corn syrup.
zugmann I once ran a slop train 80 or so miles with a pair of people sleeping in the gondola. PD and trainmasters chased them out once they were discovered. I was impresed that I didn't wake them up. Guess my train handling was smooth that day. Another incident I was swithcing in the yard with remote power. Middle of the night - deep in the yard (near nobody). I look up and there's a dude straddling two boxcars with cushion drawbars. Nearly scared the crap out of me. I yelled at him in language a lot more colorful than I usually use and he ran off. PD came around, but he disappeared into the night. I guess he was into train surfing. Still, those cushion drawbars are looong, and remotes are NOT smooth. The tank car load was supposed to have more than enough product on board to satisfy the tank truck that was there to receive a load - but no product would flow from the tank car that was being warmed with steam with the 10 degree ambient temperatures. The TBS Manager mounted the tank car and opened the top manhole and found the problem - a human body was blocking the discharge port. Police were called and the body was 'fished' from the car through the manhole. Upon making contact with the 10 degree ambient air - the corn syrup on the body almost immediately crystalized and froze the body in position. Coroners personnel hauled the body away. Never did find out anything more, like who the person was, how they came to be in the car, if being there was accidental or criminal.
zugmann
I once ran a slop train 80 or so miles with a pair of people sleeping in the gondola. PD and trainmasters chased them out once they were discovered. I was impresed that I didn't wake them up. Guess my train handling was smooth that day. Another incident I was swithcing in the yard with remote power. Middle of the night - deep in the yard (near nobody). I look up and there's a dude straddling two boxcars with cushion drawbars. Nearly scared the crap out of me. I yelled at him in language a lot more colorful than I usually use and he ran off. PD came around, but he disappeared into the night. I guess he was into train surfing. Still, those cushion drawbars are looong, and remotes are NOT smooth.
Another incident I was swithcing in the yard with remote power. Middle of the night - deep in the yard (near nobody). I look up and there's a dude straddling two boxcars with cushion drawbars. Nearly scared the crap out of me. I yelled at him in language a lot more colorful than I usually use and he ran off. PD came around, but he disappeared into the night. I guess he was into train surfing. Still, those cushion drawbars are looong, and remotes are NOT smooth.
The tank car load was supposed to have more than enough product on board to satisfy the tank truck that was there to receive a load - but no product would flow from the tank car that was being warmed with steam with the 10 degree ambient temperatures. The TBS Manager mounted the tank car and opened the top manhole and found the problem - a human body was blocking the discharge port. Police were called and the body was 'fished' from the car through the manhole. Upon making contact with the 10 degree ambient air - the corn syrup on the body almost immediately crystalized and froze the body in position. Coroners personnel hauled the body away.
Never did find out anything more, like who the person was, how they came to be in the car, if being there was accidental or criminal.
Scratch one tank car of corn syrup.
"Soylent Green"
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Likely a mob hit.. no bridge piers readily available.. corn syrup verses fresh cement.. same end result.
BaltACD zugmann I once ran a slop train 80 or so miles with a pair of people sleeping in the gondola. PD and trainmasters chased them out once they were discovered. I was impresed that I didn't wake them up. Guess my train handling was smooth that day. Another incident I was swithcing in the yard with remote power. Middle of the night - deep in the yard (near nobody). I look up and there's a dude straddling two boxcars with cushion drawbars. Nearly scared the crap out of me. I yelled at him in language a lot more colorful than I usually use and he ran off. PD came around, but he disappeared into the night. I guess he was into train surfing. Still, those cushion drawbars are looong, and remotes are NOT smooth. The Thru Bulk Services (TBS) terminal in Baltimore one frigid Winter night was having issues in trying to off load product from a load of corn syrup. TBS business purpose was to take in product in car load volumes and then distribute the product on a truck load basis at destination. The tank car load was supposed to have more than enough product on board to satisfy the tank truck that was there to receive a load - but no product would flow from the tank car that was being warmed with steam with the 10 degree ambient temperatures. The TBS Manager mounted the tank car and opened the top manhole and found the problem - a human body was blocking the discharge port. Police were called and the body was 'fished' from the car through the manhole. Upon making contact with the 10 degree ambient air - the corn syrup on the body almost immediately crystalized and froze the body in position. Coroners personnel hauled the body away. Never did find out anything more, like who the person was, how they came to be in the car, if being there was accidental or criminal.
zugmann I once ran a slop train 80 or so miles with a pair of people sleeping in the gondola. PD and trainmasters chased them out once they were discovered. I was impresed that I didn't wake them up. Guess my train handling was smooth that day. Another incident I was swithcing in the yard with remote power. Middle of the night - deep in the yard (near nobody). I look up and there's a dude straddling two boxcars with cushion drawbars. Nearly scared the crap out of me. I yelled at him in language a lot more colorful than I usually use and he ran off. PD came around, but he disappeared into the night. I guess he was into train surfing. Still, those cushion drawbars are looong, and remotes are NOT smooth.
The Thru Bulk Services (TBS) terminal in Baltimore one frigid Winter night was having issues in trying to off load product from a load of corn syrup. TBS business purpose was to take in product in car load volumes and then distribute the product on a truck load basis at destination.
zugmannI once ran a slop train 80 or so miles with a pair of people sleeping in the gondola. PD and trainmasters chased them out once they were discovered. I was impresed that I didn't wake them up. Guess my train handling was smooth that day. Another incident I was swithcing in the yard with remote power. Middle of the night - deep in the yard (near nobody). I look up and there's a dude straddling two boxcars with cushion drawbars. Nearly scared the crap out of me. I yelled at him in language a lot more colorful than I usually use and he ran off. PD came around, but he disappeared into the night. I guess he was into train surfing. Still, those cushion drawbars are looong, and remotes are NOT smooth.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
I once ran a slop train 80 or so miles with a pair of people sleeping in the gondola. PD and trainmasters chased them out once they were discovered. I was impresed that I didn't wake them up. Guess my train handling was smooth that day.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
We had a frozen guy in N Fond Du Lac years ago. We had to move the gondola into the wash trach to steam him out.
This happens over and over again, never underestimate the stupidity of the general public around trains.
At least this wasn't in winter, like this incident out my way. This poor drunk sap very nearly froze to death:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/drunk-train-hopper-recovers-from-hypothermia-1.779676
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Sad poster that, Ed.
Back when times were hard, as in the Great Depression, gleaning coal from trackside was a common occurrance. Sympathetic firemen often threw shovelfulls of coal to folks near the right of way.
Makes you wonder how many unfortunates and little ones lost their lives trackside by not keeping a sharp lookout.
Firelock76You know, there was a great, grim railroad safety poster back in the 1930's that was displayed in schools near rail lines.
Not quite the same poster, but it may do...
Posters_pick-coal by Edmund, on Flickr
In Painesville, Ohio on the old NYC, there was a bar on the "other side of the tracks" from a residential area. The pedestrian underpass was two blocks to the west.
A fellow was found with a leg amputated by a passing train. Not to be outdone, about ten years later, the same man taking the same shortcut lost his remaining good leg when he passed out on the main.
Fate can be cruel, indeed.
Cheers, Ed
I know a former Conrail conductor who lost his leg due to a rail accident. Even the pros...
I was stopped at a crossing right at the end of a small rail yard by a short (local) freight. As it cleared the crossing I saw a man standing on the coupler of the last car, with an iron grip on the brake wheel shaft. He was wearing "typical railfan" clothing (floppy hat and a hunting vest, both decorated with many RR pins) and two expensive looking cameras on straps around his neck.
I surmised that he had hopped onto the last car to catch a ride from the far end of the yard, back to an area where railfans often park, but the train didn't stop there... it was delivering the short train of hopper cars to a mill south of town.
The look on his face I can only interpret as "I'm going to have a long walk back!".
You mean the late, great Mike Royko- I still have his books. Great stuff. when I was about 12 years old a friend of mine hopped a freight on the Babylon branch of the LIRR before it was elevated. He rode east for about ten miles, got off and took a westbound freight back to town. He was railroad savvy and came to no harm. Still a dumb thing to do.
Good for the police. I wonder if they got clean under wear at the police station.
At least the two had enough sense to admit that what they did was stupid..
More than a few years ago, the late Mike Royko penned a column about a similar situation on the C&NW West Line. A commuter's path across the tracks to the station parking lot by a stopped intermodal freight so he climbed onto the flatcar to cross over. At the same time, the engineer got his signal and began to proceed. The commuter, whose perch was at or near the front of the train, waved frantically to the crew to get them to stop. They just waved back at him. He wound up riding to Clinton IA before they stopped again.
ALL:
This story reminds me of a teenage boy who lost both of legs while trying to board a slow moving CP (X-SOO) train in far north Minneapolis.
Ed Burns
Retired Class 1
BaltACDTo my knowledge he didn't use a cell phone to get the train to stop.
I'm piecing together parts of the story. One TV news outlet is saying one of the fools set a handbrake. IF they sucessfully did that I wonder if a hotbox detector sent a message to the crew?
Sometimes in these scenarios, when public safety forces try to contact the railroad, a great amount of time passes before they actually reach someone and an equally great amount of time passes until a dispatcher or road foreman can contact the crew.
Remember the CSX "Crazy 8s" runaway when the Sheriff's Department tried to shoot the emergency fuel cut-out with a shotgun? Sometimes the local public safety forces aren't very well informed when it comes to railroad operations.
Regards, Ed
Through PM's with another poster on the forum I found out he was also surprised when the train he hopped didn't stop in Willard. To my knowledge he didn't use a cell phone to get the train to stop.
You know, there was a great, grim railroad safety poster back in the 1930's that was displayed in schools near rail lines.
It showed a one-legged boy on crutches, with his friends playing football, baseball, basketball, and other games in the background.
The caption? "Gee, I sure wish I stayed off of that railroad!"
Too bad Wanswheel's not around anymore, I'm sure he would have found it in 30 seconds!
Hello.
I just caught this on our [Cleveland, Ohio] local news—
https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/oh-wayne/scared-train-hoppers-call-911-to-be-rescued-charged-after-clinging-to-train-for-60-miles
I'll reserve any judgement in regards to the intelligence of such an act.
I can certainly see why the railroads have to adopt a "zero-tolerance" policy on trespassers. If they had killed themselves it would have made for a great Darwin Award. Of course, CSX would have had to pay the families a huge settlement.
Still scratching my head —
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