Railroaders' Nostalgia > The Keystone Kops

A previous thread about a BN hook incident and some cop stories brought the following funny incident to mind.
In my 40 years in train service with the SP/UP, most of my contacts with law enforcement were very professional on their part. There were a few exceptions, however, and this story is reminiscent of the Keystone Kops.
At the time, I was a regular conductor on the SP Los Angeles-Bakersfield pool. On the evening in question, the late Richard Honea and I were going west on an advance section of the LABRF. We were cruising along about 50 per when I saw a large object on the track ahead of us about 50 yards west of the crossing at Allen Ave.
"What's that up ahead?"
"Aw crap, its a car!" he exclaimed as he dumped the air.
About the time Richard plugged it, about six police cars simultaneously turned their red lights on. They had been sitting there in the dark with no lights on at all as we approached!
"Crash," we hit the car and dragged it on the front of our engine for about 100 yards. As we came to a stop, I got on the radio and contacted Amtrak No. 11, who we'd heard approaching Burbank Jct, and got him stopped before he went by our head end and maybe hit some wreckage from the car on the other main line.
As I got off the engine to access the situation, here comes the boss cop full of badge and attitude.
"Why didn't you stop before you hit the car."
"Because we didn't know you were here. Why didn't any of you have any of your lights on," I replied.
He turned to another cop and said, "Louie, didn't you call the railroad."
"No, I thought you did."
At this point, Officer Attitude was starting to deflate as they realized that they had made a huge screw up.
Come to find out, a drunk had missed the crossing and got his car stuck on the tracks nowhere near the crossing. The cops already had him cuffed and stuffed in one of their cars, and he was screaming about who was going to pay for his car?
I checked the other main line and determined that it was safe for No. 11 to go by. He went by at restricted speed and went on his way.
Boss Cop says, "I've never handled a railroad accident before, I'm not sure what to do."
"You might start by calling a tow truck to get this car off the front of the engine," I suggested.
"Oh, good idea."
While we were waiting for the tow, this cop, all attitude gone now says, "Hey, I've never been up on one of these railroad engines before, would it be OK if I went up there and took a look around?"
"Sure, go ahead."
Well, then, all the cops wanted to have a look. Richard even let them blow the horn.
OF course, when this first happened, we had notified the Metrolink dispatcher as to what was going on. He knew Rich and I and we knew him, so he trusted us to check the other main line and determine it was safe for No. 11 to get by, and believe me, he was not a bit happy about the fact the cops never notified him so he could hold trains back. We could have derailed right in front of Amtrak 11.
The tow truck showed up, pulled the car off our lead unit, and since there was no damage to it, we went on to Bakersfield.
Hopefully, this police force learned a hard lesson.

Brian Black
Retired SP/UP Conductor

was it similar to this incident ...

http://m.liveleak.com/view?i=20f_1269328247

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