I hate writing about this — about people being killed by trains — but it’s still happening and, unfortunately, the trend that saw a decline for a while seems to be reversing. For the purpose of this discussion, let’s not even bring up actual railroad accidents like the collision between two freight trains that occurred…
At the rate of about one-a-day, collisions occur between cars and trains somewhere across the U.S. There are two absolutes when it comes to these incidents: (1) every one if them is avoidable, and (2) the train always wins. In addition, there are a tragic number of injuries and deaths when people walking on train…
For years now, whenever I travel on one of Amtrak’s long-distance trains, I carry a scanner. It’s a device that can pick up radio transmissions among the operating crew members (conductors and engineers) and between the engineer and the dispatchers who control the train’s movements. Probably 98-percent of the conversation is brief, routine and boring….
About a dozen years ago, I was on my way to Florida and relaxing with three or four other passengers in the lounge car on Amtrak’s Silver Star. We were just north of Savannah, Georgia, when suddenly I felt the train braking hard. Four or five seconds later, there was a jolt and the train…