I saw two kids try to hop on my train today while it was moving at about a good foot running speed. They waited until the lead engine passed and tried to pace off the second unit so they could board when they thought the crew wasn't watching. What they didn't know was that I was riding the second unit because we had 4 crew people on board. I just sat there and watched this kid try to get to the steps, but he could only get beside the first car and he never looked up and saw me in the cab. His buddy was smart and gave up early. The crew in the lead unit saw what was going on and later told me that they were going to stick me on him if he got onboard. My reply was that I had the same idea. I figured that I could either (1) help him off at slow speed or (2) take him the rest of the way to the yard and call the cops. Option 2 was probably the smarter move, but 2 might teach a lesson.
Welcome Aboard Dave, Wow gutzy kids...not to bright, but very gutzy. No some time what you should do isn't get the cops involved, but instead call their parents and that way, they have something worse that cops.....
Gutsy indeed going for the engine instead of a car way behind where they would less likely get caught. Either that , or very stupid! BTW - Welcome to Trainboard Dave! Russ
GOOD GRIEF when will people ever learn you don't do that. Dave you should have made a citizens arrest and taught them a good lesson. Welcome to the Trainboard Dave glad to have you hop aboard this wonderful place I call home.
Welcome to the TrainBoard Dave. With the kids carrying guns today, you must be careful. I understand some of the crews are now armed, but if you have help and feel confident in a capture, the Police is your better option, and safer. If you simply threw the brat off and he survived, his folks would probably sue. His parents probably wouldn't punish him like ours would have, today they would blame you for having your nasty old train in little Johnny's play pen!
I see this type thing everyday in Meyersdale with trains going up the mountain... Its sad tho. they don't know that their playing with their own life! And they think its kool to do and show off.. It is when their doing it. but when one falls and the train lasserates him and the other watches it and his buddy dies then its not so gutsy and or even brave.. Bravery is one thing, stupidity is a completely different thing... Bravery is proven in the armed forces to me. Stupidity is what you see here..... Their was an incident in Cumberland, MD like 2 years ago with a boy and hid friend jumping on and off a moving train to show off in front of the one boy's girlfriend and he ended up slipping and the train cut him in 2. Lasserated him, not a trace of blood was found but his friend and his girlfreind watched him die over something that I myself will never understand. And the sadest part isn't that the boy died. its the fact that the kid was in the CSX Cumberland rail yard PLAYING and his parents tried to sue!!!!! I don't know if they did procede in sueing CSX or if they won or what nothing was said about it after that. The last thing I heard was his parents was sueing CSX for this mishapp... And you tell me how CSX was at fault? The kid was in the CSX rail yard! Not in his own back yard! I hate it!!!!! Its discusting. The Railroad is always to blame and little Johnny can do no harm... Sorry for saying this everyone, but I'm young I know, and theirs alot more and alot younger then me and I hate to say it but their is not any perfect kids in this world..... No little angels. I mean I fractured a few laws myself in my time.... Never broke any, just fractured them. So I know as well as the rest here... So... But it really gets under my skin when this type thing happens..... [ 29 March 2002, 21:49: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
Once the kid was on the unit I would have told the engineer in the lead unit to speed up, pretend I didn't see the kid, and suddenly "find" him 50 miles away where his parents could then pick him up at the local police station.
Unfortunately I was just a mile from the yard and was coming in. If I was going the other way he would have been anywheres from 20 to 60 miles away.
A 50 mile trip to retrieve their kid certainly would have pissed those parents off! Little Johnny would have gotten a good old fashioned whooping! Russ
I had a kid lay down on his belly right across the rail in front of me one night a couple of weeks ago. We were so close I could see he was laughing and pretending to stumble for the benefit of his pals standing by the track. I called it in to the dispatcher but by the time he got the police notified and they got there, the whole pack of them was probably gone. This goes on day after day after day and I always wonder when one of them will misjudge it just enough and I'll have to watch them go under the nose. It's not funny, it's not brave, and if there's any part of this job I hate, it's this. I can only hope that the cops grabbed them but even so, they'll be right back at it next time. One of us will have to live with what happens when their 'bravery' gets them killed. Talk to your kids, yell at them if you have to, but do whatever it takes to get it through their heads to stay off the tracks!
I was running as a passenger conductor on one trip and we saw a couple of kids attempt to hop the rear gondola on a NS train headed either to Memphis or Birmingham. The head end had just passed the opposing signals and they were accelerating out of town when these kids attempted their "bright" idea. One couldn't run fast enough (the train was probably moving about ten miles an hour) and the other one lost his grip on the rear grab iron. He was darn lucky not to fall under the wheels. Our train was sitting at the NS interlocking, waiting for that train to clear up when that happened. My engineer also saw this and called the operator and the kids were picked up literally a couple of minutes later by the NS Special Agent. Some of these same kids have also tried to hop a ride on our passenger trains by crouching under the trap doors in the vestibules. If the opportunity presents itself, we contact the local police who are more than happy to haul the juvenile delinquents away.
Alan, Welcome to trainboard it is always a pleasure welcoming new members. Unfortunately all over the world kids lose there lives due to rail incidents. we lose quite a few here in Australia from graffiti artists trying to tag rail equipment. We had a guy killed last week when he was trying to cross the mainlines here in Sydney to paint a signal. Unfortunately for him he didnt see an express passenger come towards him, he never knew what hit him as he was killed instantly.
The first one I saw killed was back about 1940 when I was ten. My uncle lived in a small town where it wasn't far to walk out in the country to where we could put nails, wire formed into different little shapes, and even pennies on the rails and let a train flatten them for us. There was a bully who sometimes would take our works of art away from us, and he would also take our candy away right on the street in town. No one liked him, even adults. He was over-grown and was mean to his parents, and fought with the town Constable many times. He was about as big as the old Constable and shoved him out of his way sometimes. One time the Constable had caught him putting a railroad spike on the rails, and had ordered him off the track, but the bully had just laughed at him. The Constable had told my aunt that kid should get a good wuppin', but his dad had tried and had been beaten pretty bad, so the town was afraid of him. I think his mom was too. I never saw him try to jump on a train, but then they were at mainline speed through there anyway. Early one morning my cousin and I and several other kids ran out to the tracks to get our "flats" as the fast west bound express passenger train had whistled passing at dawn. We wanted to beat this bully to our flats and get away. When we got to where we had put our nails and stuff, everything was covered in blood and pieces of flesh and torn rags. The train had gone out of sight by then. We found the bully's head and shoulders lying in the grass at the edge of the ballast. He had been cut in two from his arm pit diagonally down to his other hip. His arm still attached was still wiggling its fingers when we walked up to him. The thing I remember the most was that he was blinking his eyes and trying to say something, but was making no sound at all. We all ran back to my uncle's house (closer than to town) and they called the Constable. Of course all us kids and half the town went out too. Word gets around quick in a small town. The bully looked like he had gone to sleep by the time we got back. Some men had brought shovels and gunny sacks, and were scooping up parts of his body along the tracks, and throwing dirt on the rails to soak up the blood. I don't think anyone took any photos, and his mother and father didn't cry. They just looked at his head for awhile, then turned and walked away. I stayed two more weeks, but there was never a funeral for him. My cousin said that he found out the town figured he had gone out in the dark and got hit while gathering up our "flats". His parents had moved out the next day, (they were just renters anyway), and the town folk didn't like "renters" much during the depression, so the town had dug a hole in one corner of the cemetary, and put the sacks in and covered them up. We made some really neat stuff, after that, birds, fish, swords, hearts, like jewelery for our girlfriends and our selves, and he was never missed. Once in awhile, like now, I'll remember seeing his eyes blinking before he died, and the girls throwing up. I don't think anyone misses one like that, even his mom.
Watash, that was fun to read first thing in the morning. Johnny Trains went plenty of places he shouldn't go both in my youth and even now but I never did anything to risk my life! Not on purpose anyway! Kids can be very foolish. Adults too. Someday I'll tell you about the time I was in the South Bronx during the blackout of '77. Now that was foolish......................
My one friend almost got arrested just for crossing some tracks near Essex, MD, and they told him not to go across there again. So a few months later I went somewhere and he tagged along, and I wanted to cross the tracks where he crossed. Lucky enough a train was stopped and we climbed between 2 cars over the coupler, I looked towards the cab and saw the engineer, I waved and he waved back and was on my way home. I respect all engineers and their trains cause I know a train can kill you in a heartbeat. Whenever I cross tracks I always look, and if theres a train coming I wait it out and enjoy the rush of wind as the train goes by. Respecting an engineer and their train is the best way to go, they have the right of way and you dont.
Which must explain why you climbed over the couplers between 2 cars. If that train had suddenly moved, and you were between them, you would NOT be here to share this story. If you really respect trains and engineers, then cross at railroad crossings, stay away from cars & locomotives, and off the tracks. You're lucky that engineer didn't come after you, or at least call in for a police assist.
For boneheads like that kid who think hopping trains is cool, there's a site they need to look at. It's called Dead Train Bums (www.deadtrainbums.com), and has some pretty gruesome pics of stupid, unfortunate, and very dead kids who tried to hop a train- in color. Also included are some pretty graphic stories. Now note- I do not in any way, shape or form endorse hopping & riding freight trains by anybody- be they stupid punk kids or seasoned hoboes. The last time I rode a freight (in fact, the only times I ever rode feights) I was a special guest of the railroad. I boarded the locomotives under the watchful eyes of the train crews, stayed on my seat when the train was in motion, and pretty well out of the way. I was very fortunate, and blessed to be able to do this. Any other train I ride, I buy a ticket and ride in a coach like the others. Today's freight trains roll faster, are usually closed up, and offer very few places to ride. Personally, I wouldn't want to be found dead in a derailment, during the cleanup phase. And no lame arguments in favor of trainhopping- your statements will fall upon deaf ears.
respecting the engineer and their train? what is this!!!!!!! you want to give them respect don't cross it at all, were you at a crossing or just somewhere you wanted to get across at? respecting the right of way is more what you should do and never tresspass on rr property which is anything 100 feet each side of the rails. this is a good way for your bodyparts to get well travelled across the usa and canada. i used to see people crawl through the train where i ran all the time and then all it took was one to get disected and they finally learned. if you were close enough to the engineer and the engines on the train to see him wave why didn't you walk around up bigboy this is a good way for you not to celebrate your next birthday or anything else!!!!!!!!!!!!
You're darn right that crossing between standing freight cars is a good way to get yourself killed! One of the first things that I was taught when a student trainman was never cross between standing, coupled freight cars UNLESS one of them is provided with a foot board and horizontal grab iron for that purpose. Secondly, attempting to board moving equipment or move around on moving equipment as needed by your job can be difficult for experianced railroaders. Look at how many career railroaders are injured on the job simply attempting to board moving equipment. I admit it can be a pain having to bring equipment to a full stop to get on or off but it's easy to make a simple mistake and that one mistake can cause a serious injury or death. I'm certain that many of you others can attest to the difficulty we can have safely mobing about when we have to go out on the running board of a moving diesel electric locomotive, especially if the running boards or boarding ladders are wet. INEXPERIANCE AND HASTE KILL! [ 01 April 2002, 09:43: Message edited by: Alan Walker ]
