Is the deadly penny on the track an urban myth?

Question

I've heard a story before of pennies placed on the railroad track shooting out like bullets and possibly killing someone. Has this ever actually happened? I remember the neighbors putting loads of pennies on the track as kids and I've never seen it happen. Also, is it against the law, apart from the trespassing factor? Is there an actual charge for it? Can it cause any real harm to equipment?

Answer 1

There is the possibility of the pennies (or other currency) becoming projectiles once squashed by the wheels. Personally, I've never seen it happen, but I wouldn't want to stand next to it to test that theory.

There's all sorts of objects people put on the tracks for us to run over. Rocks, steel bars, shopping carts, and more. Rocks, when crushed, often break into smaller pieces, and those can become some pretty dangerous projectiles. It's impossible to predict their path, and they travel at a high rate of speed.

As far as what charges could be laid against someone for laying pennies on the track, trespassing is a possibility, and I could see, if the issue was forced, defacing currency. Odds are, though, that nobody cares much about some squished pennies. For any train wreck or destruction type charges, you'd have to actually derail or wreck the train, and you'd need a better arsenal than some pocket change.

Answer 2

I'm told that in the late 19th/early 20th century, children would put halfpennies on the rail line and the train would flatten them to the size of pennies. Both dangerous and illegal, but that's kids for you. Despite the danger it was unheard of for the train to be derailed or the ha'penny to shoot off like a bullet.


They would then palm them off as pennies at the local sweetshop.

The kids got away with it most of the time because both the ha'penny and the penny had the same design on the reverse, i.e. Britannia. However the Royal Mint must have wised up, because some time around the middle of the last century the design on the reverse of the ha'penny was changed to a sailing ship.

Thus was put an end to this charming childrens' game, which apart from risking life and limb involved trespass, misuse and defacing of the coins of the Realm, and petty fraud.

Answer 3

Pennies on the track, singularly or in a great number, cannot cause a derailment, unless they happen to be in a Loomis armored car when struck.

Destroying US currency is not illegal. Defacing US currency is.

Larger pieces of harder stuff, can, will and do get ejected by the force of the wheels striking them. They will travel a long distance, at relatively high velocity, and they can be quite lethal.

I've never heard of any locomotive prevented from starting by a nickle, but they can be held in check against gravity by a relatively small piece of wood, commonly referred to as a "chalk." But, with low starting tractive effort, it may not take much to hold a steam engine in check. This would be a good one for the Mythbusters (love 'em).

As far as legal consequences from placing material on the tracks, intent is the determining factor. A kid putting a part of his allowance on the track is not usually considered to be engaged in a deliberate attempt at train wrecking, which, in some states of the US, is a capital offense if the actions result in loss of life.

Answer 4

Pennies will not do anything to a train as far as derailing them.
1. Pennies are made of copper and Zinc. Copper is a soft metal.
2. The train cars have a capacity of about 200,000 pounds (100 tons) EACH! You usually see trains haul up to 120 cars, so you're actually seeing 12,000 tons (24,000,000 pounds) in motion. A penny will never hold up. A stack of pennies will never hold up...if you were to weld another rail on top of the rail the train rides on, you might get a train to derail if the welds are strong enough. You can get a train to derail if you pull one of the sections of track. No currency will derail a train though.
And yes, destroying currency is illegal, but plenty of pennies are destroyed daily...

Answer 5

As an aside to this from the UK, when I was a child there was a foot crossing over a short passenger line near to where I lived. I remember walking there one day with my mother - I must have been very young as passenger trains ceased on the line as long ago as 1952. Some older boys were placing our copper half-pennies and pennies on the track to get them flattened. One train comes along (doing about 25mph), the driver sees the lads, stops his train, climbs down and gives them a real bollocking (telling off), more for endangering themselves, I think, than the train.

Answer 6

I mentioned this myth to a friend who used to work with trains alot and he just laughed at me. He suggested that it would require something about an inch tall(maybe taller) to derail a train due to the way the wheels overlap the track (I'd imagine that's why they are designed as such). However, I would like to say that no it is not illegal to crush a penny, not in America anyhow. Currency made from metal is legal to deface, I've seen the law that says this, a penny is supposed to be worth litterally one cent in the materials used to produce it, the same goes for nickles, dimes and quarters. As a result any metal currency you have is actually your property, notice the lack of serial numbers??? However, currency in the form of notes, so called paper money, is illegal to deface because it actually is a form of government contract representing the amount of gold it actually stands in for, that is why they need serial numbers, so that they know how much the american dollar is actually worth. So, if you destroy a dollar, their calculations become incorrect and there is less paper currency in circulation. This is partially what determines the worth of the american dollar. If you have 1000 dollar bills to stand in for 400 actual dollars in gold those dollar bills collectively are worth 400 dollars despite what they say on them. (rudimentary explanation mind you)

Answer 7

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Answer 8

nah it's too soft a metal to do any harm to the equipment. I think most of the time it falls off the track before the train gets there because of vibration.

Now, I have heard about steam locomotives that couldn't move because a nickel had been shoved under their wheel... steam locomotives aren't strong on starting tractive effort, and it couldn't climb over the nickel. Not sure I believe that one thouugh.

Answer 9

ive lived next to train track my entire life, and as someone who has put his fair share of coins on a train track, i feel i am an expert in the field.
every time my friends and i ever did this, the most that happened is that it would fall of the track an inch form the rail, with the way the trail wheel overlaps the rail slightly, its nearly impossible for it to shoot it out the side.

Answer 10

Although a single penny is most unlikely to cause any real problem, trains HAVE been derailed with a small stack of them.

It may only be a few pennies to you and I - but to a metal train wheel on a metal rail, it represents a metal lump which is going to make a wheel bounce.

I do not know the exact offence(s), but I would guess you could be charged with something along the lines (no pun intended) of "endangering life" easily enough.

Mark



ps: to the posters that think putting metal objects on the railway line is not highly illegal, I suggest they wake up, remove their heads from their bottoms and think about it sensibly for a moment. If you are caught doing it, expect a custodial.

Pennies may not shoot out like bullets - but a small stack (a metal lump on the line) can derail an entire train. If the train is poddling along at 125 mph, only a fool would think there was no endangerment to life.