While traveling cross country on Amtrak, and listening to various train conversations on my radio, never realized that engineers make a report about things they hit that don't require the train to stop. On the way west, I know we hit a skunk, because the sleeper filled with the stink, strong enough to wake me up. On the way home, we hit something in the Raton Pass, but the engineers could not ID what it was to put in the report, jumped in front at the last minute, and some question as whether they hit it or not. One stop we did make was in NM. We were in a snowstorm that eventually dropped almost 2 ft of snow in the area overnight, the train stopped because the train orders said proceed on the main #2 while the signal aspect said take diverging route. Train stopped, engineer and conductor head up the track in the storm, verify turnout locked in the correct position, and radio to dispatcher who groans knowing she has to get somebody to work in a snowstorm.
After 38 years in the aviation industry, I go with what Jesus said, "Lo, I am with you always", it's the train for me because they never fall from 30,000 feet. I did a bit of research, in the last 170 years there has been around 900 railroad passenger fatalities in the US and except for a couple old incidents where trains fell off of or collapsed a trestle, most folks walk away. One loaded 747 equals 1/3 of that when it goes down, and survivability is nil.
