During RailCamp 2012 at the Steamtown National Historic Site in the morning, we recieved a presentaion from Operation Lifesaver, talking about railroad safety awarness and the like, but what made really ironic is that during the trolley ride, there was a stick that was on fire on the tracks. At the same moment, there were the ghostly images of people lying up against the wall. The conductor then got out, put the fire out, reemed the kids out, and they got out.
All I can say is that they were lucky that DL M636 #3000 wasn’t entering the tunnel, or even a full length freight train moving a 30 mph.
Knowing little in the way of specifics about Steamtown, your description leaves me cornfused.
“A stick that was on fire on the tracks”? Do you mean a tree twig, limb, log, 2x4 pine board, or a euphemism for a RR flare?
“Ghostly images”? Was this a Holloween event?
“Lying up against the wall”? What wall?
“Entering the tunnel”? What tunnel?
I can surmise that maybe some children entered a tunnel that is in the area that the trolley passes through and had set fire to a stick to use as light to find their way into the tunnel and when the trolley came , they layed down on the floor along a wall to hide. But that is just a lot of guessing… what happened?
What happened was that we were on the trolley ride on Thursday. That should explain the tunnel. On the way to the end of the line, everything was fine. On the way back, everything was normal untill we rounded the bend in the tunnel. Then, I spotted a person’s back and moving legs. It took me a minute to realize that it was person running in front of the train. Then I saw him stand flat against the tunnel wall. When the train stopped, two boys came out from the wall. Due to the fact that they were using a wooden torch, the tunnel was slightly smokey. Hopefully this answers your questions.
“Riding a Trolley” does NOT, in any way, “explain the Tunnel”. At least for those of us that have no knowledge of the Steamtown operations or grounds or route. I am left to GUESS that the trolley route goes through a tunnel. But it has taken way too many questions to arrive at that knowledge.
I certainly think that the museum should have detained the children for the police and the parents be made to come retrieve them from the police office. What they were doing was DANGEROUS… as the Operation Lifesaver seminar was supposed to be training about. But to just let the idiots go without some sort of consequences was counter productive to what Operation Lifesaver is all about.
For one, these were the operations of the nearby trolley museum and the DL, neither of which have to do with the Steamtown operations, and you guessed correctly, the trolley route goes through a tunnel with a curve in it that would have disguised the teens on the track.
As far as being detained, I really don’t know what happened to the teens. My guess is as good as the next persons, besides, it is the job of the railway police and local police departments to arrest those that are responsible for vandalism and trespassing, Operation Lifesaver just makes this laws more well known to the general public.
But I don’t think that they would care if they did get detained and charged. If you asked them why they did it, they may say " 'Cause we could.", or “We don’t give a #%&@. Get lost!”. Why would they do this, nothing better to do. If caught, they would still do because they don’t care and, again, nothing better to do.
By the way, thank you lone geep for clearing this up.