The vision of a duck leaning into the wind at 50 mph, wearing goggles and a flowing scarf like Snoopy in his Sopwith is wonderful.....:teeth: :shade:
In 1981 I saw a fellow worker from the machine shop I worked at walk out of the shop at quitting time and right in front of an oncoming N&W freight. Lights flashing, horn blaring. My mind's eye saw it as it happened but my memory plays it back in slow-motion. He was there and then he was gone. Most of him lodged on the pilot but some of him was left on the tracks. (His boots with one foot still in them) The train stopped 2 crossings down. We ran to see it but now I wish I had not. It was bad. Let's just say brains truly are grey. No one knows why he didn't see or hear the train. He was always the first one to punch out to go home and the first to the parking lot to leave. Not that day he wasn't.
When I was a teenager, I was watching a train roll by me on the CSX A&WP sub and saw a hobo standing on the end of a covered hopper and relieving himself as the train went thru town. Just one of those things you dont expect to see, I called him the peeing hobo.
A few things come to mind after reading this... It only takes one moment of having your mind on something else to have your mind put on something a lot worse, like a loco pilot. We get so used to being around things that could kill us that eventually, something does. (Steve Irwin comes to mind.) If you're in a hurry to leave work, avoid shortcuts. You could run into your boss, or something worse. Death really sucks. :angry: Simplistic, even stupid, I know, but I've seen enough of it, thank you.
