Grrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! A Good Way To **** Off Someone.

Last night, a friend and I decided that we would do some train watching from one of our favorite locations today. We got a hold of another buddy of ours before we set out this morning. When we got to our spot, the traffic wasn't bad to start off with. Considering that within an hour and a half, we had four trains pass by us. After those four had went by, we thought that it wasn't going to be a bad day. Boyyyyyyy, were we ever so wrong on that statement.

Around seven o'clock, we decided to try and grab a few shots of some power that had stopped on the bridge about a third of a mile from where we were at. So we gather all of our camera equipment and other gadgets and venture down to where the two locomotives are setting. Little did we know that all hell was about to break loose a little over a mile from where we had set up at.

Apparently some dumb son of a thought that it would be "cool" to open a release door on a loaded coal car. This car emptied its entire load onto Number 1 Main and almost on to the Number 2 Main. I'm not talking just a few tons of coal. I'm talking about the entire 100 tons of coal being dumped from the car. Not only that, the same dumb son of a opened a latch on an empty coal car that was parked in the siding directly across from the loaded car.

At first, we didn't think that much about it until we heard the engineer call up the dispatcher saying that he had coal all over the place. Then the conductor got off to go take a look at how much coal had in fact spilled. I could imagine the shock on his face when he realized that the whole carload had been dumped out.

I want to know this............

How damn stupid can a person be?? I mean, why would anyone have the audacity to walk up to a fully loaded coal car and decide, "Oh, I'm going to pull on this lever just to see what it does!!" Let's just say that whoever pulled this little stunt might have caused an accident if it wasn't found when it was. We were lucky to not have a derailment occur because of this act of mischief.

Greenpeace?

Someone might have thought they were doing the right thing by dumping the coal...

Did ya take many pictures for us?



Roswell.

reply to post by gimmefootball400


If it is a Greenpeace type organization, I wonder if they realize all those fresh veggies and fruits they eat also take the main routes they just halted? It was a stupid act of vandalism, and they should be made to clean coal cars as a punishment.

I wonder if they realize most of the electrical power in the US comes from coal fired plants?

*facepalms*

Oh man, GF. That's heavy. Glad no one got hurt.

I have no idea what possesses people to do these sorts of things, they might actually be unable to think past the agenda of their group doctrine...

...or they might be just the dumbest people on the planet.

No clue.

Hindsight may be 20/20 - but some people really just need "futurethink".

reply to post by roswell1


Actually Ros..........

I don't think that Greenpeace had anything to do with this incident. Whoever did it though, knew what they were doing when they did it. That being, they found another car with its doors open on the siding directly oppostie of the first train. No I didn't dare to and try to get some pictures of the coal pile. I don't that CSX would have let anybody that would have been taking pictures of the scene. That, and the track inspector was a "little" p/o'ed about it.

reply to post by kidflash2008


Like I said before, I honestly don't think that a Greenpeace type organization. I really don't think that they would give a damn about all the fruits and veggies that would have been halted. Besides, this is a coal line that I am on and the only veggies that we see here are corn, wheat, and soybeans. Indeed, it was a senseless act of vandalism that could have gotten worse if the crew on the lite engines wouldn't have noticed it.

reply to post by GENERAL EYES


From what I understand, the crew that had to run their power around the affected train said that the coal itself was pile up at least six to eight inches above the top of the rails, It was also covering both mains which was how I heard it. As for what possesses people to do something like this, I think I may know the reason why. I want to say it is that some people know that they won't get caught. Now I know why exactly that part of the county is called Trollville.

Good grief! What a mess to clean up. Glad it was found before it did serious damage.

From what I remember hearing over the railroad scanner. One of the crews said that the pile of coal was about a foot over the top of the rail on the open main that was bing used. They also said that if another train would have hit the pile at a good rate of speed, it would have been problematic for the other crew. It is a good thing they found it when they did. If they wouldn't have found it in time, who knows what might have actually happened.