Question for train engineers.

Question

What's one of the most ridiculous or stupid things you've seen someone do while you were operating a train?

Answer 1

I had 3 girls play chicken with me.When they finally jumped off the tracks the 3rd girl slipped and almost fell.If her friend wouldn't have had her by the hand to pull her out of the way i would have hit her.I missed her by a foot! At 70 mph they would have needed a shovel to pick up what was left of her.

Answer 2

I have tried and tried to come up with an answer, but in railraoding so many stupid things end up either in a pine box or ambulance ride.

Do you mean by railroad employees or by trespassers?

I wasnt there personally but I know a buy several years ago, had the brakes disonnected on his quad and ran into the side of a passing locomotive and killed him, that was stupid, The ridiculous part was his widow sued the railroad and won the case, somehow the railroad should ahve known he was going to do it.

A guy I used to work with decided he would rather smoke pot than support his family and got fired from an $85,000.00 a year job with vested retirement.

I havent decided it that was ridiculous or stupid, both I guess.  

Answer 3

Which one?

Well, lets qualify the answer.  I'll rule out near misses, since they are many, many in number, and all of them are stupid and ridiculous.

But if there was an award available for the most dedicated vandals, it would have to go to a group of unseen individuals I encountered one night many moons ago...

In Marysville, California, the railroad crosses the Feather River.  The river bottom is always a big draw for ATVs, dirt bikes, etc.  But one morning a week or so before Thanksgiving, at 03:30, it is colder than h**l with high wind and raining in heavy sheets, I mean really miserable, we start across the bridge and then... WHAM!  WHAM!  WHAM!  We start getting pelted by beer bottles being hucked up at us from below.

These were true troopers...