I’m sure several of you have done this. I’d love to see what happens to a “lucky penny” placed on a rail in a yard where they move the trains slow.
They get really flat and elongated.
The problem is getting them there, since, by definition, unless you work for the railroad, in order to put the coin on the tracks, you have to trespass on RR property…
Last year I was doing the ground work for one of our twice daily runarounds at our distant ‘terminus’ when I noticed four coins on the rail on the runaround track. I don’t know who left them there (it wasn’t any of our crew or passengers), but several passengers got a unique souvenier that day. [:)]
I have to admit that I have never done this, so I must ask the question. Wouldn’t the penny just get knocked off the tracks? And would it be legal to do this at grade crossings where a sidewalk crosses the tracks?
Just had to ask the “stupid” questions.[:)]
emmar
Emmar - trust me - like Tree said - it flattens it/them.
But it is a waste of good money, which is I believe may come under defacing the currency and even at a crossing you are walking over, it probably would still be considered trespassing if you stopped to do the deed.
Spending the money was always a bigger thrill for me…
I was always told by trainmen that I could derail the train by sticking a coin on the rails. I didn’t want to wreck the trains I was watching, so I have never done it.
I know the coin is going to get squashed. From a practical point of view, I see the coin- or any other object- getting squashed, picked up, and thrown in a random direction. I would feel really rotten if some mechanic ended up spending time yanking the squashed remains of a penny out of a traction motor. I would feel a lot of pain (no brain damage, though) if the coin was squashed and thrown into my head.
Geez, Mookie, you sure know how to tempt a guy into grabbing up some pocket change and facing a trespassing charge… and the NS Yard is only a couple of miles away…
Nope. Not going there. Bad, bad, railfan!
It might actually be a more costly waste of perfectly good copper! [:D]
For the record, when the following mix with a train:
A coin will absolutely not derail a train, unless it is “O” gauge or smaller.
A whole roll of silver dollars would cause a train no grief.
A spike becomes a missile.
A tie plate becomes a guillotine.
A tie becomes kindling.
A motor vehicle becomes scrap metal.
A person becomes a corpse.
Indeed, considering that today copper is selling for $2.98/lb.
A long time ago when I was a kid spending vacation at the seashore in Wildwood New Jersey the trains ran down Pacific Avenue on their way to be turned at Cold Spring Harbor. My grandfather introduced me to the pleasure of putting a penny on a rail and having a PRR K4 run over it. It was the size of a fifty cent piece when it was done squashing it. Most of the time you had to peal it from the rail. Diesel were a big disappointment with their ability to tread lightly.
Zardoz, the long and short of it is that the trainmen of my youth- and now- just don’t want me standing on, or near, their tracks because it’s a dangerous thing. They also don’t want me testing your facts by sticking a penny or a concrete wall on their tracks. It doesn’t stop me from intellectually accepting your facts as true… but the kid in me still wants to squash pennies, because it’s a pretty cool thing to do. The adult in me says Don’t even go there, you idiot…
Are pennies still made of copper? I thought the Feds made pennies out of an alloy mix that made production costs cheaper than the represented value of the coin… sorry about the distracting question…
I think pennies are made of an alloy mix but they still cost more to make than what they are worth
I will clear up two points: I didn’t do it, but watched from a distance whilest someone else did.
Send your pennies to my pig bank, copper or alloy
Oh and if I comb my hair right - it covers up the 3rd point.
Mook
Aha! You just fessed up to conspiracy! Don’t you know you could put your eyes out with that thing? I bet you run with scissors, too…
Sorry about that abuse… I couldn’t resist.
When the Overland Limited goes off the tracks in your hometown, and they find a squashed penny on the track, I know who they will look for… don’t give me that innocent look!
On the other hand, a friend of mine who has worked with steam told me that you can prevent a steamer from rolling with one or several dimes, placed as chocks in front of the drivers. They tried it and proved it.
97.5% Zinc, 2.5% Copper…if you scratch a penny and put it into acid the zinc will dissolve away and you will be left with the copper thin film coating. It is kinda cool to see if you have a strong acid. Vinegar does it, but takes a while.
My dad, when he was young, would take those snap things (the ones that pop when you toss them down on a hard surface) and empty the powder of a bunch into a foil wrap. He’d place those on the J through Diamond Lake and wait for the train to make a really big pop.
There’s so much entertainment available…what’s the thrill in seeing a penny flattened? Ulrich just not getting it…[%-)]
There are some things in life you just gotta do. Having a penny run over by a locomotive just seems to be one of them…
When I was young and not too bright my brother and I tested several items on the IHB tracks behind our house in LGP. The most interesting, besdies the penny, was the lign of 8 torpedoes we got from an old engine waiting to be scrapped. That was VERY COOL. Anyway, if I caught my kids doing what we did, well . . .
Bill in Colorado[:)]
Yes, a train will elongate and flatten a coin, but one wheel rolling over it is usually enough to knock it off the rail, so it won’t turn into foil or anything like that. You can still usually distinguish between the head and the tail.
Wayno, I hope you and your friends concealed yourselves well after placing the torpedoes. That could be considered interfering with interstate commerce, and would also be potentially dangerous to bystanders.
Some of the entertainment value is having a historical locomotive flatten a penny. I recall when the UP ran the 3985 through New Braunfels, Tx, there was a whole line of pennies on the rail. They did a quick stop in NB, and that is when everyone laid their coins down. I am surprised the UP allowed that, but not a word was said.