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Now here's a hypothetical question borne out of the facts of the case (and I don't expect everyone to read the Classic Trains article so I'll try to relate the necessary information here): The train was, as I indicated before, composed of empty coal hoppers.  It was passing the yard at 10 MPH.  The crew in the lead locomotive initiated the emergency stop because they saw the switch for the yard entrance was lined for the yard tracks, rather than being lined and locked for the main (as per B&O operating rules). The yard itself in WV was where coal from 3 different branch lines was collected for transfer to the mainline.  The branch lines to the mines reached the yard from the south, and this accident occurred while the train was approaching the south end (from the north).  Since this was a marshalling yard for coal, there was probably no other cars nearby carrying hazardous cargo. At 10 MPH, does anyone think it would've been better for the engineer to not go into emergency stop, but rather slow down as much as possible and let the train plow-through the mis-lined switch?  Since the switch wasn't normally locked (this was a rules violation that was, unfortunately, common practice in the yard), at that speed, could the train have possibly forced its way through the switch and not derailed?  Had it derailed, the slack action would've probably done the same injuries to the caboose crew (or worse) anyway, and quite likely have blocked access to the yard.  But is there a chance the train could've remained railed?
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