A commuter “T” train derailed in Wilmington Mass due to a tree branch that had fallen on the tracks during a snow storm.
http://wpri.com/2018/03/08/mbta-commuter-rail-train-derails-in-wilmington/
I wonder if a cow catcher would have helped to push that branch aside? Is it time to bring the old timey cow catchers back?
Maybe a chainsaw…
I watched a crew on the local East Penn line that runs nearby, stop and saw up a tree limb that was across the tracks.
I was riding Amtrak from Norfolk va toward washington after a wind storm. We stopped for a good while until a tree was cleared from the right of way. As we passed it i could see that it was not a relly large tree, just medium size.
Most deisels have some sor of plow to catch debris. Perhaps the train that derailed was running pusher service? Even so i would have thought those cars would have some sort of protection. Maybe it was a BIG branch?
This thread brought back a memory from my childhood (mid to late 50’s) I haven’t thought of in decades. I don’t know how old I was but I was very young and my father got us a ride in the cab of a steam loco probably moving cars between yards. We were riding along the 49th street embankment and viaducts and the engineer had me sitting in the seat while he talked with my father. Looking out the front of the cab I saw one of those gallon glass milk jugs that someone had balanced on the rail and got very worried. Like I said I was very young. I tried warning the engineer and my dad that we were going to crash into it but they just laughed and told me not to worry. My father worked and retired from the Belt Railway Co of Chicago. I never did follow in his footsteps as I always noticed that most of his railroad buddies were missing one of more of their appendages.
Oh yea, a nice oak slatted pilot, hanging out there in front of a sleek, modern, deisel-lectric thang. I would love to see that.
Hey, the colour scheme in those pictures looks familiar. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-undecided.gif)
David Maynard said:
Oh yea, a nice oak slatted pilot, hanging out there in front of a sleek, modern, deisel-lectric thang. I would love to see that.
Hey, the colour scheme in those pictures looks familiar. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-undecided.gif)
Yeah that would look odd so a more modern catcher made of steel that would cast aside tree branches, cars and the odd person that was wandering on the tracks.
They could paint them all with pointy toothed smiles like a P40 Warhawk fighter!
