I have heard the plows called many things, but cattle guard?? This article is from Yahoo today. The early steam locomotives did have the “cow catcher” for the pilot. Who writes this stuff???
A man apparently trying to end his life by lying in front of a train was pushed safely off the tracks by the engine’s cattle guard Wednesday.
Police say the man, 57, reportedly lay on the tracks near the Lodi train depot at about 2:30 p.m. But the train had just left the depot and was moving only about 15 to 20 mph, creating an impact that was not lethal.
“As the train approached, the cattle guard pushed the male to the side,” said Lodi Police Sgt. Fernando Martinez.
The man suffered non-life-threatening injuries to his shoulder and abdomen and was transported to a local hospital by emergency personnel. Martinez said the man’s mental health will be evaluated once his injuries are treated.
I agree that they probably just reported what was said. I just thought it was funny since a cattle guard is actually built into a road and is just a set of pipes with space below it so the cattle would not step into it.
The other part of the story is how the man was knocked aside and not killed. That is amazing. I would have expected the person to sue the railroad since the train interrupted his sleep, or intended permanent sleep!.
The front of a locomotive is a pretty solid piece, so at a slower speed I can see that he simply got pushed aside rather than dragged under. But still he should be pretty thankful,he’s obviously been given a second chance to not do that again.
And, I have seen cattle guards that were painted on ramps leading to interstate highways. Apparently the cattle were supposed to see what looked to them like the pipes that could not support their hooves and go somewhere else. First cost, low; upkeep, high.
An engineer with a shortline near here related that on their trip north one day a dog came out to chase the locomotive. The animal actually got in front of the moving locomotive to the extent that the snowplow flipped it out of the way. The train continued on.
Later that day, on the return trip, the same dog came out.
