I was running a Lehigh Valley coal drag the other day when the C-628 Snowbird took off at full speed. I hit the red E-STOP button. The loco stopped instantly and remained on the tracks. The coal drag took a split second longer to stop resulting in numerous derailments. Although a number of cars ended up on the ground, none of them tipped over and no coal was lost. There was a group of kids playing by the tracks. They escaped a horrible death by a few feet, but I suspect they will keep playing in the area like nothing happened. The LV wrecker crane just happened to be parked on a siding adjacent to the worst of the derailment. But cars were re-railed by the HOG, not the wrecker. The C-628 was sent to the backshop for work on its speed control tach strip.
