Railroad engineers and coductors, has someone ever did this to you......?

Question

When you are approaching a crossing has someone ever pretended like they were gonna drive around the gates just to see your reaction? What was your reaction?

Answer 1

Happens on a daily basis. I usually grab a little more throttle so they can see smoke come out the stack. People assume that engineers are going to slam on the brakes for them. If they look up and think the train is accelerating they usually soil their britches trying to get out of the way.

(One notch on a throttle isn't going to speed up a train enough to hurt a person at a crossing. It just makes it look like the train is speeding up because old engines belch a little extra exhaust. Looks intimidating.)

I agree with Hoghead and tbone. If you do hit one, better to hit first brake later. Otherwise, you'll be blowing them out all day long. But, I'll admit I've dumped it when running over a body. Just a panic reaction when I heard his skull hit the pilot.

Answer 2

It's one of the most stressful parts of an already stressful job.
Usually it is someone finally reversed their cranial/rectum inversion and looked and finally saw the train ans slammed onthe brakes.
No one wants to hurt people out here, even the ones that seemingly "deserve it"
As for the ones playing "chicken", if it is dark, and you turn out ALL the lights, the train has suddenly become invisible after staring into that bright light.
I have only seen it done once, long before the days of event recorders and believe me that car moved, they had no idea how fast the train was moving or how far away it was.
Lots of people have died playing chicken, trains are deceptively fast.
Kind of a poor price to pay for a little thrill.

Answer 3

I don't thimk anyone ever pretended. They started then changed their mind.

My reaction? The same as always. Hit the vehicle then dump the air.

For pedestrians, the reaction is slightly different. Hit 'em and bring the train to s stop. I won't chance wiping a town off the map with an emergency application of the air brakes for the life of an idiot........

Answer 4

Hey Rex. Only a few times that's happened. But there's no reaction because there's nothing that can be done at that close of range. I sure don't want to hurt anyone on the job - we're all Americans here. But if someone wants to test my reaction, I won't be the loser in the encounter.

Answer 5

I've seen alot of people stop on the tracks on purpose, with no other traffic around, just like a game of chicken. They usually take off before we get too close though. It's like everyone else said, if we hit, them we start slowing down, but most of the time, they know who's gonna win if we hit, so they move.

Answer 6

I've had a couple close calls with pedestrians, but our trains are so slow that it's nothing too terrifying. They're also short, so the big hole is almost unnecessary. There's not much you can't do with twenty-six pounds.

Answer 7

I gotta agree with hoghead. Theres not much you can do, its best to hit em and then react. I wont plug my train for a body either.