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People do not realize  how quickly a train can come up on you and do so surprisingly  quietly.  I learned a lesson in my youth. i attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. A train track passed through the campus. I lived on one side, classes on the other so crossing those tracks became routine.   One evening as the sun was setting and I had pulled an all nighter cramming for a final, I was walking to the test, had to cross the tracks...tired, thinking about ohms, and watts, and everything else about electrical engineering, head down I nearly walked right into the side of the train...didn't hear it until it was passing in front of me...this is decades before, walkman and smartphones, etc.  Lesson, they may be big, and they may be loud and they may appear to be slow...PAY ATTENTION!  I'm convinced my Guardian Angel was looking out for me...no disrespect   to you Mr. O'Rielly.   

I live down near West Palm Beach FL and we have only diesel engines on either FEC or CSX tracks because there are no overhead electric wires for the trains. I would think that you would hear a large 12 to 16 cylinder diesel engine or two engines pulling at least 10 passenger cars or 80 freight cars coming down the tracks. 

I have been to other areas(Pennsylvania and Connecticut) in the US where they have electric engines pulling trains and the electric engines are very quiet, compared to a diesel, when they take off.

Lee Fritz

Diesels are quite loud as they pass, pulling up a hill, yet can be deathly silent when you are standing in front of them.  The first noise you're likely to hear is brakes and then it's too late! 

In that moment of panic the horn is strangely inaudible but the squeal of wheels will get your attention like a deer caught in the headlights. 

Last edited by Farmer_Bill
Boo Man posted:

  Feel bad for the crew again and every time this happens.  

As do I. They, and the families of the dumb folks who trespass on tracks, are the true victims in such cases.

As for the original story, this occurred really early in the morning, so it would have still been dark, right? Never mind the noise, how could they miss the beam of light from that massive headlight on the front of any train in the US? I could see this happening in the UK, where many trains are electrified and they don’t have headlights (only marker lights for lineside people to tell what type train it is- I’ve always been baffled how British railroads never thought a headlight on a loco was a good idea). But in the US?

Yeah, a train going downgrade can sneak up on you. I’ve been alongside railroad tracks waiting for trains to photograph plenty of times when I’m facing one direction and I forget to check the other than suddenly I’m hearing the rails ‘singing’ and just as fast BOOM, a train comes right by that I never heard coming. I’ve also been surprised plenty of times when trying to get shots along the NE Corridor in Maryland and Pennsylvania when I lived in the area. I’m facing one way, then WHAM, a train rockets by from other direction, before I can even turn around with my camera.

But in those cases, I’m well off the side of the right of way, so the only casualty is a missed photograph. I’ve never been on a railroad track except crossing it at a grade crossing or walking across it on foot.

I agree with the earlier opinion that people who do this view tracks like they do sidewalks or roads. A right of way is legal for everyone, they seem to think. But those folks don’t get that it’s a private right of way, not a public one.

And we’ll be seeing plenty of such stories in the future, as long as people can walk on tracks.

That's the sad part - the growing (it seems) lack of situational awareness. I once read about the scary silence of a loaded coal train moving downhill on dynamic braking and flange-oilers being used. Nobody has a chance if they have that romantic movie-scene in their head about wandering down a deserted railroad track.

The sound of an object traveling towards you will reach you before the object does, because of the speed of sound. The wind though, is a major factor with sound wave travel. If your walking into the wind almost anything can silently sneak up behind you because the wind will disperse the sound waves making them harder to reach you. If the wind is strong enough it can force the sound waves backwards.

We live about two miles from the Trenton Cutoff as it passes by Fort Washington, Pa.  The tracks parallel the Pa turnpike.  Beyond the tracks and the turnpike is a ridge.  We can hear then trains from our house yet if you are near the tracks you won't hear them until they're almost on top of you.  Even when the line was electrified, we could hear the GG1s and E44s.  On a humid summer evening, the sound is even louder.  

Stay off train tracks period. Bad things happen at 530am. Two more out of the gene pool. I only felt sorry about animals with their small brains not knowing any better. The folks you should concern yourselves with are the train crew who will have this burned into their memories for the rest of their lives. Stupid people.      conrail john

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