This is scary! Received the following via email on May 15, 2008. These are items posted on TrainOrders.com, and I am not sure of the time and place of the incident described. Suicides, accidents, and games of chicken have a significant psychological effect on train crews, and are not taken lightly by the railroad companies. Railroad tracks are dangerous places, and railroad employees are trained and retrained about the hazards. The rest of us are not always aware of what might happen when "playing" on the tracks.
On the way back into Northtown from my Dilworth road trip I had an experience today that really enlightened me in a not so subtle way about what crews can go through when encountering idiots who do not respect trains.
My engineer and myself were eastbound on main 2 coming into the north side of Elk River at about 45mph with 7k tons behind us. About a mile ahead in between main 1 and 2 we see two girls walking side by side away from us. I would guess there ages at about 13 and 10. At seeing them the engineer begins sounding out the horn. Upon hearing the horn, the younger girl moves off onto the other side of main 1 out of the way. The older girl, instead of joining her friend, looks at us and moves closer to our rail and begins jumping up and down waving her hands wildly in what appears to be her playing chicken with us.
At this point we are now about 3/4's of a mile away and the engineer lays solid on the horn and what does the girl do? She now moves over and begins straddling the rail and continuing to play chicken. We close to within half a mile and she now moves fully into the gauge and continues the jumping up and down, waving hands wildly, and now stupifyingly sticking her tongue out. I am think a life will be tragically snuffed out due to abject stupidity.
We close to within about 200 feet and she jumps out of the way over in between main 1 and 2 where her younger friend runs back over to her, now together again, and laugh as we pass by. We call the train behind us to watch out for them as they inbound. What these girls did not realize was not only how lucky the older one was to not fall in front of us, but that a westbounder was not coming on main 1 that neither the older nor younger one would have ever heard nor seen.
Where this happened is only about 3 miles from where I live and it is a smaller part of that community. I will not be working until Friday and plan to go over to this area tomorrow afternoon when school gets out and see if I can find these girls because I will never forget their faces. If I do locate them I plan on talking to BN's security and see what they recommend.
This item generated the following postings and replys on TrainOrders.com
I would suggest that you don't talk to them alone, talk to your local cop or sheriff and explain what happened and that you would like to talk to the girls. They might be willing to help. Tracking down the girls yourself might be considered stalking in your state. I wholeheartedly agree with your intentions, it's just that our laws can get you tangled in a legal and bureaucratic nightmare.
Reply from original author.
Depending on what BN security tells me in the morning will guide me on how to proceed. I think what stunned me more than anything else was that this was two younger girls. Not to be sexist or anything, but this deadly game is usually the domain of younger to middle age teenage boys, not girls.
Another comment.
Was your locomotive equipped with a camera and if so, is there any way photos of this incident could be recovered and utilized in some manner? Which brings up another question regarding locomotive cameras, how long of a "loop" is retained before being written over?
Reply.
Unfortunately, no camera on this B40-8 which is ironic because there is supposedly rules coming that unless an engine has a camera, it is not lead qualified. I had thought about using my cellphone that was within reach, but my first instinct was to try and call BN security. As to time retained on cameras I have heard somewhere between 40 and 70 hours, but I defer to those with more information.