You took the words right out of my mouth!![(-D]
I’ve actually had some coins weld right to the rail head.
I have smashed many coins on the rails and never had one fly out… BUT it can still happen. The wheel and the rail are a pinch point.
Back in 1984 I was 14 (and stupid). I put a 3/8 inch nut on the rail and laid down in the brush to watch the train roll over it at eye level (I was about 6 feet away from the rails hidden from the veiw of those on the cab).
A little while later an SD38-2 came rumbeling along at about 10-15 mph. I watched as the first wheel hit the nut and to my suprize the wheel bounced around 3-4 inches off the rail. I could see day light between the rail and the flange. Same thing with the second wheel only about 2-3 inches off the rail. The third wheel pinched the nut and shot it out off the rail with such force and speed that I heard it wiz past my head like a ricocheting bullet.
The whole thing happened so fast that it scared the crap out of me. The sound from the wheels bouncing on the rails was very loud, and the nut flying by my head was the wake up call. I never did that again.
Thankfully it missed you. At least some of us do admit to having done some dumb things in the past that we gladly would never do again. I know that certain things, though they seem harmless, can actually lift a train off the rails, you just never think of it happening until it does.
A 3/8 inch nut and a penny are very different. It is not safe to put just any old thing on the track; a penny is pretty soft, as metal goes.
Is there even one documented case of a penny being launched like the nut was launched? I think the real danger is that placing a penny on the track also places the person who put it there in close proximity to the track and eventually close proximity to a moving train. There are documented cases of folks being killed while they waited to collect their newly flattened prize.
Phil,
While I don’t have pictures or video – hey, it was 1965 – I am almost certain the object that struck me was either the penny I put on the rails or the one my brother put next to it. Unless there was a crewman or hobo who saw me near the tracks who then threw a rock right at my head, it would have to have been one of the pennies. The train was moving at track speed, somewhere around 40 mph, so that would’ve been one talented throw in any case. We sure didn’t see anyone throwing stuff, but we were watching the train. [:D]
I haven’t seen the Mythbusters show on the pennies, although I’ve seen some of their other ones. They are pretty thorough, but they really can’t account for each and every circumstance. I’ll admit that if it hadn’t happened to me, I would have a hard time believing it did myself.
Nonetheless, you’re right that it’s a good idea to discourage any close, unsupervised interaction between non-employees and the tracks. Heck, I knew a guy who left the Air Force, got a job on the N&W in Decatur and was killed within a couple of months one night in the yards there. Railroads can be dangerous places, even if you’re supposed to be there and have been trained to pay attention to the dangers.
Odd, becasue the Railroads prvoed that one true a llloooonnnnnggggg time ago. I;m a Mythbusters fan, but I shake my head at this. If the coin is seated properly, Say slightly off to the side of center, it will have enough slide to move, and not be pressed.
Try it on your desk. If you hit a penny on the edge enough times, it will flip up in the air.
Oh, and as to ol’ craggy, he’s right. Heck, I was advised on the Fairtrain to say excuse me, cause I “loudly urged” people to move out of the car for brake test movement. Earlier that week I’d seen the train gravitate roughly a foot from where they parked it, cause there was a lot of sl;ack in the couplers. I didn’t notice I’d yelled, Just knew that I was perotective of the car and the people not meeting badly. So I’d give him a brake.
He might have been saying that for liabilities sake.
Possible, doubt it.
I didn’t read the entire thread…
…but I remember one time i went to do this as a kid, and the police officers that were around told us that it was actually illegal (even though they did it as kids too). Always wondered if they were telling the truth
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=250164&nseq=5
Heres proof if you want it, read the remarks it tells how it threw it 20’. Mike
I did this once & once only almost 30 years ago on the CR main thru the area with an upgrade slow moving unit train. To my surprise it created a very audible “bang.” I found the penny between the ties after the train had passed, flattened in the usual way. That bang un-nerved me a bit, as I felt I almost caused a derailment. Either way, I haven’t done it since, for I don’t see the sense in it.
My better half did the same where we railfan a few years ago, with the same results. (bang, etc.) & agreed no sense in it also.
A long time ago when I was a kid I put a penny on the track so a Reading Electric Multiple Unit train could run over it. I couldn’t find the coin after the train passed but there was a slight coin sized copper impression on the rail where I placed the coin. About 10 feet away was another slight copper impression of an enlongated coin and another 10 feet away there was a very faint copper impression. The coin might have attached to the wheel because of the current passing through it. That was the only time that happened to me.
Hmm. Penny on the track. Mostly harmless. One out of every 10 might pop off the track, one out of every 25,000 might hit somebody. Good odds not to worry about. The deeper question is what about road kill? How many animals are hit and knocked to the side, how many are cut in half, how many explode, and how many get thrown into the catenary? Working on the Amtrak lines for a few weeks leads me to believe it’s about even odds for any of those scenarios…
Mythbusters is pretty dubious.
I read the Snopes.com article; I am going to spend the rest of my life hiding under the bed.
Wait a minute! What will happen if an airplane falls on my house? Maybe I’ll find a cave and become a hermit!
Wait a minute! What’ll happen if an earthquake causes the roof of my cave to collapse? Maybe I’ll . . . . . . . . . .
You forgot about the Texas size asteroid heading our way… and Obama…
There is no hope. A friend of mine collects bones, she actually likes to walk alongside (safe distance of course) the tracks and look for stuff that met it’s untimely end at the hands, or wheels, of a train.
Horrible suggestion but why don’t we see if we can lay our hands on Mr Saturday/Al Mayo and put him on a track and see how far he flips when a trains hits his rock-solid head!