Railroaders' Nostalgia > Chasing Wildlife

Working for a shortline that has slow to moderate speeds, you really get a good sense of the top speed of variety of animals. From waddling porcupines that have a top speed of around 3mph to Coyotes charging along well in excess of 20mph. Deer can sprint up to about 20mph over short distances, but soon settle into a range around 15mph and gradually lose steam from there.
Definitely have my share of wildlife stories from working the past two years in the "outback" of Eastern Washington. One of the better ones happened the fall I started working in Eastern Washington. I was running a train west at 10mph past a remote grain elevator and out onto a 40' tall fill with cut over wheat fields in all directions. Just as I started across the fill, a coyote that was in a ditch on the side south decided he wanted to be on the north side and crossed the tracks well ahead of the train. This coyote then proceeded to run away from the tracks up the valley at a good clip, all the while looking back to keep a eye on the train. The coyote was about 400 yards from the tracks when it finally realized he was making a bee line for a couple of hunters on a ATV who had happened to be just sitting there. The coyote "hit the brakes" so hard, he went into a tumble rolling over himself trying to get going in the opposite direction. The coyote then went into a all out run on a intercept course with my lead loco trying to get away from those hunters (who thankfully refrained from shooting as I was in the line of fire). That coyote covered the quarter mile and went straight up and over the fill just a few feet ahead of the locomotive without breaking pace! I'll bet that was one tired pooch after it quit running in the next county over.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Funny story. Thanks

Spilled grain in Minneapolis' yards was normal This time of year, and until frost, the yards reeked with the smell of spoiled grain.

This, or course attracted wildlife. Not woods animals such as you describe, but city life. Rats and Pigeons.

Rats are surprisingly fast - probably about 7 or 8 mph for a large one. When we saw them between the rails, engineers would chase 'm down as they tried to outrun us, getting far enough ahead that they could try a right angle turn to cross a rail ahead of us. Sometimes they'd make it - sometimes not. Us switchmen had to tie a shoestring around our pants cuff, when working the lead, so that when (not if) they tried running up your leg they'd at least be OUTSIDE your pantleg.

Pigeons weren't bright enough to flee, especially when drunk on sour grain. They'd just sit on the rail and wait to get run over.

-John

This post brought to mind the remarkable variety of animals that appeared in the new Barstow yard after it opened February 1976.
The yard was constructed between 1973 and 1975 on the former sandy Mojave river bed West of the old, downtown yard. Within a few months of the yard opening, we began to notice a few squirrels and rats who appeared to be feasting on the ever-present spilled grain. Within a few more months, we noted burrowing owls and some hawks around, as they apparently detected the delicious mice and squirrels. Within a year, there were several families of Kit foxes that apparently lived on the edges of the yard and found their sustenance within the yard. The grains would sprout whenever we had rain, and this attracted desert tortoises. And of course, the snakes! As one of the trainmasters, I frequently had to deal with the Mojave green rattlesnakes, who loved to lie along the rails for warmth in evening. We never could figure which union could stake claim to handling and disposing of rattlesnakes, so the chore fell to the duty TM. I probably handled 15 incidents of unwanted snakes, but the Mojave green ( (crotalus retinus) and the sidewinder (crotalus scutalatus) were the most dangerous.
There was a family of burrowing owls who lived within 100 feet of the hump crest. I know they were railfans because they would pose outside their burrows and watch the cars rolling over the hump, their heads rotating like a radar screen.

Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/14 14:10 by aronco.

Bear season along the Sacramento River starts shortly. I'm surprised we haven't seen any thus far as dry as it's been. You do get a sense of how fast they are when they are running away from a train. A lot faster than I can run!

Sphogger

Rats just loved the hump in Centennial Yard (now Davidson) in Ft Worth. A horn would always blow when the hump stopped working and that was the signal to the rats and they would come from everywhere going under the hump to eat spilled grain. When the horn blew the 2nd time to start humping again they all ran and hid. It was amazing how they knew to do what when the horn sounded. And, some of those things were BIG. You would see anywhere from 2 to 3 dozen of them.

In Wyoming, I was on a dirt road by the BNSF right of way. An antelope started running ahead of my car, clocked at 40 MPH. He ran for 4 miles before he decided to leave the road, and never slowed down. He may still be running. There isn't a North American predator alive that can run that fast, ever since the saber-toothed cat went extinct.

mapboy

Years ago in Kansas City there was a short stretch on KCT track in the west bottoms known as "Santa Fe Street" which ran down the middle of, you guessed it Santa Fe Street. With grain and seed companies
around this was a great haven for rats. One friend told of working switch jobs and transfer runs where the crews would bring guns and see how many rats they could kill from 1 end of SFS to the next! Track was torn out several years ago.

Well, I can certify that although wild turkeys can fly, they can NOT outfly an Amtrak Empire Service train. I was up along the Mohawk a few years ago, sitting quietly in the shade, watching a small group of hens that had not detected my presence. As I repositioned to shoot an approaching eastbound Amtrak train, the entire group went airborne (no WKRP jokes here, wild turkeys actually can fly).

But they don't fly very fast, and the train was moving maybe 65 or 70 mph. He caught two of them from behind a second or two after he passed me. Vey loud thumping sound, looked like the one that landed on my side of the tracks had hit the windshield.

Neither bird survived.

I've noticed owls don't get chased. They just sit on the rail and stare as you run them down.

Pacific5th Wrote:
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> I've noticed owls don't get chased. They just sit
> on the rail and stare as you run them down.


try blowing the horn and dimming the lights... works most of the time.