Real Train Tragedies in the Family Tree...

Very descriptive in the manner of death.  Nowadays they would simply say two train guys died.  Very cool (not the fact they died), but the fact that you have details of your history.

My grandmother passed down much of her fathers railroad history to me. He worked from the age of about 12 until he retired at age 65 on the B&O out of Weston WV. Most of his years were as an engineer. When he retired the Weston paper ran a large article on his career. That article and some things my grandmother wrote gives a brief but nice history. She also gave me some BLE items and almost every 'employee pass' my great grandmother ever had. My uncle was a PR guy for the C&O in the 1950's to late 60's. Not as exciting but still cool.

And then there's my wife's side.....all PRR men...but that's another story...

Had a brother-in-law who lost the man that raised him. Hit by a train in a little town in western Nebraska. He crossed those tracks everyday for 50-60 years. In his car as I recall, and did't see/look and pulled right in front of a train at speed. Must have been in the late 1950s.

I recently discovered that a great grand-uncle of mine died on the job as a conductor on the Union Railroad.  It was "only" a heart attack, but still a tragedy.  From his death certificate, I can guess he was on the job at the time since the place of death was listed as the Carrie Furnaces, U.S. Steel, Rankin, PA.

Also have the husband of a very distant cousin who lost his life as a brakeman in the 1870's or 1880's when his head hit a bridge (he was facing away from it) and he was knocked off the train.  I think I have a few other distant cousins that were brakemen who lost their lives after falling off of their trains, but I'd have to dig into my genealogy files to find more details.

Also had another great grand-uncle that supposedly lost a leg to a train on the job for a railroad, but I haven't been able to confirm this (it was a story that my grandmother told me that I haven't been able to confirm).

Andy

I have a family story that ends in a good way with regard to trains. My dad worked for the transit authority in New York City for many years. He was a station man who worked as a clerk and an assistant on the platforms. On this particular day a subway rider got his leg caught in the closing doors and, in those days, there was no automatic stop on the train when the doors did not close completely. The frantic fellow was being pulled prostrate along the platform toward certain serious injury or death as the train started to move. My father ran and caught the man's body as my father frantically yelled for the motorman to stop. My father's waving and yelling caught the attention of the motorman who stopped the train and saved the passenger's life.