[stanmarsh]

Originally Posted by gimlet ↗

Most common train fatalities, multiple train tracks and one train screens and drowns out the sounds of another train approaching.

It took a couple of views to realize they were hit by another train approaching in the opposite direction.

Even if they had heard the whistle, it was already too late.

I feel bad for the kid in the red shirt who saw it coming and tried to warn them right before the impact. I think that was his mother.

[Bletch]

Ah yes, the railroad tracks are an excellent place for kids to play and an old man has no better sense to go along…

…big fucking FACEPALM

[William May]

Originally Posted by gimlet ↗

Most common train fatalities, multiple train tracks and one train screens and drowns out the sounds of another train approaching. We grew up 200 feet and played on the tracks as kids but we were smarter /more experienced than these people. We collected taconite balls that fell off the Burlington Northern trains which were a perfect weight, size and hardness for wrist rocket / sling shot missiles. Some of those were probably carried by the Edmund Fitzgerald.

"What was the Edmund Fitzgerald carrying when it sank?
The final voyage of the Edmund Fitzgerald began November 9, 1975 at the Burlington Northern Railroad Dock No. 1, Superior, Wisconsin. Captain Ernest M. McSorley had loaded her with 26,116 long tons of taconite pellets, made of processed iron ore, heated and rolled into marble-size balls."

We had train tracks right behind our house, and we used to collect Taconite for the same purposes, in our sling shots, "Wrist Rockets" and in our carbide cannons. (I can't believe we never got killed!) They were kind of a bluish-gray, rough, round marble looking thing. Apparently they were headed from the Upper Peninsula into either Milwaukee, or Gary, Indiana for steel making. I went back a couple years ago and walked the tracks again. There used to be 5 trains a day. Now there is reportedly one every two weeks. The Taconite balls are still all over the roadbed.

[William May]

Originally Posted by Bletch ↗

Ah yes, the railroad tracks are an excellent place for kids to play and an old man has no better sense to go along…

…big fucking FACEPALM

I don't know. WE played on and around the train tracks just north of Milwaukee, and in my entire life I NEVER heard of ANYONE ever getting killed on them, and not just by us, but all over Wisconsin. Train tracks were rarely fenced. My teen girlfriend and I had sex often under one of the nearby creek trestles, tucked up at the top where the rails got back on solid ground. It was VERY cool being 12" from that massive locomotive, and watching the bridge timbers flex as the locomotive crossed the bridge. Our heads would fit up between the ties to look at the bottom of the locomotive, and we could smell the hot oil, see occasional sparks, and the rush of wind off the huge locomotive trucks. There was a regular freight train out of Milwaukee that headed north every night about 10 pm when it got to our town, so that place was a regular stop on our walks.

I think people are just a LOT stupider than they used to be. How did we survive all the truly dangerous shit we used to do, and kids today get killed just walking down the street or riding their bikes. WTF? REALLY!?!? We had the obligatory high school student or two killed in drunk driving accidents, and memorialized in the high school yearbook. But that was really an exception. Even farm accidents were pretty rare, and farms are REALLY dangerous places.

Apparently, Darwin is extra busy these days, because there are so many idiots all over. But the herd will thin itself naturally. Oh, well.

[William May]

I learned a lot from walking the tracks, too. A friend of mine was a machinist and die-maker, and when we walked the tracks, he showed me some of the receptacles by the side of the tracks. They were big concrete drain pipes, placed on end, with a metal lid, and inside were "Edison Batteries" which apparently were made of iron and zinc. They were HUGE glass bottles, probably 3 feet high and 2 feet in diameter, with heavy clear glass lids. The normal power system kept them charged, but they had incredibly long lives, like 10-15 YEARS without attention. They were to power the indication system and the crossing lights, in case of power failure. Those installations were all gone this last time I walked the tracks. I assume all the signaling and electrical power systems have been modernized. Those iron batteries probably dated from the 1930's or so.

They used to put "date nails" in the wooden ties, and we looked for them while we were walking the tracks. I found one from the 1920's once, but most of them were from the 1950's and 1960's.

I once watched a couple of diesel engines stop on the track near a local restaurant, and the crew went in to eat their dinner. The engines just sat there idling while they were in eating. They had no cars attached, so apparently they just rode from the local rail yard to get something to eat. I should have asked them for a ride up the tracks a ways. They probably would have said yes, but I was too shy to ask them. They did blow the whistle and wave as they pulled away.

Putting pennies, nickels, and an occasional quarter on the tracks just before the train came through was a regular ritual. Flat, squished coins were always a hit at school.

Of course, if I had been able to bring in the squished corpse of a dead classmate that had been killed by a train, THAT would have been an even BIGGER HIT!

Except for those stuffy teachers. They were ALWAYS in the way!

[nudibranches646]

Nice doppler effect with the train horn.

[azblue81]

Let’s check out the aftermath of this train accident. Oooh, what a great view when I stand on the train tracks with my back to oncoming traffic.

[CatBatMan]

Originally Posted by gimlet ↗

Most common train fatalities, multiple train tracks and one train screens and drowns out the sounds of another train approaching. We grew up 200 feet and played on the tracks as kids but we were smarter /more experienced than these people. We collected taconite balls that fell off the Burlington Northern trains which were a perfect weight, size and hardness for wrist rocket / sling shot missiles. Some of those were probably carried by the Edmund Fitzgerald.

"What was the Edmund Fitzgerald carrying when it sank?
The final voyage of the Edmund Fitzgerald began November 9, 1975 at the Burlington Northern Railroad Dock No. 1, Superior, Wisconsin. Captain Ernest M. McSorley had loaded her with 26,116 long tons of taconite pellets, made of processed iron ore, heated and rolled into marble-size balls."

You grew up to be 200 feet tall?

[CatBatMan]

Originally Posted by William May ↗

I don't know. WE played on and around the train tracks just north of Milwaukee, and in my entire life I NEVER heard of ANYONE ever getting killed on them, and not just by us, but all over Wisconsin. Train tracks were rarely fenced. My teen girlfriend and I had sex often under one of the nearby creek trestles, tucked up at the top where the rails got back on solid ground. It was VERY cool being 12" from that massive locomotive, and watching the bridge timbers flex as the locomotive crossed the bridge. Our heads would fit up between the ties to look at the bottom of the locomotive, and we could smell the hot oil, see occasional sparks, and the rush of wind off the huge locomotive trucks. There was a regular freight train out of Milwaukee that headed north every night about 10 pm when it got to our town, so that place was a regular stop on our walks.

I think people are just a LOT stupider than they used to be. How did we survive all the truly dangerous shit we used to do, and kids today get killed just walking down the street or riding their bikes. WTF? REALLY!?!? We had the obligatory high school student or two killed in drunk driving accidents, and memorialized in the high school yearbook. But that was really an exception. Even farm accidents were pretty rare, and farms are REALLY dangerous places.

Apparently, Darwin is extra busy these days, because there are so many idiots all over. But the herd will thin itself naturally. Oh, well.

"Hey, everybody! Did you hear? Bill got laid!"

[Bletch]

This kid did try to warn them….in vain