Western Railroad Discussion > If you're gonna throw rocks at trains...

make sure the train crew doesn't know where you live!
Listening to the BNSF road channel in Spokane, WA, tonight and the crew of the Kettle Turn called for a BNSF special agent to respond to a kid throwing rocks at the train, has been for a week. When the DS asked for a description, the crewmember reporting responded that he didn't know the street name but he knew where the kid lived. He saw the miscreant walk out his front door, pick up some rocks and then start throwing them! Special agent contacted the crew off-radio...
Crew said the kid had on a shortsleeve shirt. It's 31* outside!
Hopefully he'll get a little surprise tonight...

once took a train ride from belen to el paso. we got rocked in las cruces (sp). crew told me it was not unusual to get rocked there. esp. on a weekend night with many drunks roaming around.

Once when I was riding Amtrak's Metroliner between Philadelphia and New York City some kids threw some rocks at the train as we were passing through a station in New Jersey. They hit the window next to me. I'm sure glad it didn't break. Scared me to death though. The conductor, who was sitting across the aisle from me working on paperwork looked up but didn't see it happen.

On a Cascades Talgo a rock hit the window next to me dead center. They are double pane and nothing happened to the inner one. The outer pane had a million(?) even cracks over the entire pane - not just where the rock hit. You could no longer see detail through the window. When I got off the train I ran my fingers over the cracked window and could barely feel the cracks.

Next trip the window had been replaced so it must be a fairly easy thing to swap out on the maintenance layovers in Seattle.

jb

PS Last month the normal 72 min run SLM/PDX took over six hours. Three of those hours were spent by a golf driving range just south of Brooklyn. We got pelted with golf balls. Conductor picked up a handfull for the kids in the Bistro.

Went camping/fishing at the Salton Sea in the mid seventies.
I didn't care about the fishing one iota so I spent the evenings
( no trains during the hot day)by the trackside. My brother and
friend accompanied me where they threw rocks at the cars (not the locos)
to watch sparks. Of course I told them to stop. Good kids really,
just a little bad boy behavior. Throwing rocks at the loco is a
different story though as there are people in there.
Remember those few evenings quite well...hearing the U33C's flopping away
and flying by at 60+mph was quite a sight...

A couple of years ago ATK Coast Starlight was paintballed near Castroville. Since the guys who did it frequently were in the area playing their games, they were easy to catch.
C.

I was on the return trip from Winter Park to Denver, CO on the Ski Train a few summers ago. The train came out of Tunnel 27 (on UP's Moffat Tunnel Sub, for those who do not know) and a little ways before Tunnel 26, a group of [drunk] teenagers were having a little party on the tracks. Listening to the scanner, I heard the crew come on for a split second yelling and I heard "oh sh**!!". They immedately put the train into emergency. Amazing how fast a nice light train like the Ski Train can stop. We (fortunately) missed hitting the teens by a matter of feet.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, when the conductor was walking the train, two of the teens (who had scattered up the slope into the trees) poked their heads out and, with beers in one hand, threw a few rocks at the side of the Ski Train. One rock put a pretty descent pit in one of the side windows in Car 1. I don't know if anything ever happened to those kids...it was a crazy afternoon!

Kevin
The Front Range

I had some neighbor kids who liked to throw rocks at the SEPTA commuter trains, when they weren't busy smoking....
I made a pretty darn official looking warning stating that the trains were now authorized to use salt guns on site!

That was that!

'Course today, I guess I could've caused some kind of lawsuit?

Years ago I was working the San Dimas Local out of West Colton. It seemed every time we went through Rialto, these two kids, ages about 9 or 10, would wave with one hand and throw a rock with the other.

I told the conductor to be ready for a quick stop when we were in the Rialto area.

Sure enough, the two kids were out there waving. Then they let us have it. With an SW1500 with 2 cars and a caboose it didn't take long to stop the train. I jumped off the engine and chased them to one of the kids back yard. The mother came out and asked what was going on. I told her what had been happening almost every time we came by. She asked her son about it and he said yes, he and his buddy would throw rocks at the train whenever it came by. I told the mother and then son to go sit on the engine and let me throw rocks at them and see how much they liked that. They decided they didn't want to do that.

After the mom heard my story about how one of my long time friends lost the sight in one eye because of a rock thrower, she proceeded to beat the crap out of her son. Talk about child abuse! Poor kid. But he deserved it in my opinion.

On the way back from San Dimas, the son was standing out by the tracks and was waving to us as we went by. I politely waved back and smiled. To my knowledge, we didn't have any more rock throwing incidents in that area.

steamjocky

This probably isn't the best solution but, if it is cold out and you have enough warning frozen water bottles do a good job of convincing the rock throwers that it's a bad idea.

Back in the early seventies the night local out of Healsburg would be heavy with gravel cars headed for San Rafael. It would crawl up the approach to tunnel four and the caboose would be rocked regularly. One Friday night I was working the caboose. The conductor and I went a couple of cars ahead of the caboose (on a load of rock) as it charge up the hill. When they started rocking the caboose we returned fire from the gravel car we were on. Surprised the hell out of them. We didn't get rock for a long time after that.
On another trip I worked with an conductor that carried a sling shot in his grip. He picked up a hand full of ballast when boarding the caboose and put it on his desk. His regular brakeman had been hit with a rock on a previous trip and nearly lost his eye. As we went through south Santa Rosa we were rocked heavily. He got his sling shot and a rock went to the back of the caboose opened the door and shot out a plate glass window in a home across from the rock throwers. We were never rocked there again.
Rockers are one thing another is bored hunters during hunting season. Twice during my time on the NWP my caboose took fire from so called hunters. Once while we were heading south out of Healsburg the brakeman thought we were hit by rocks. Upon inspection we found four bullet holes in the caboose's side. The other incident happened going up the hill out of Redwood Valley. Took fire half way up the hill, had to lay down on the floor as they shot out the bay window. These dumb bastards got caught because they were bragging about it in a local cafe and the station agent heard them and call the sheriff.
nwpbob

That would have cured me if I was them......lol

L.G.

Steamjocky Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Years ago I was working the San Dimas Local out of
> West Colton. It seemed every time we went through
> Rialto, these two kids, ages about 9 or 10, would
> wave with one hand and throw a rock with the
> other.
>
> I told the conductor to be ready for a quick
> stop when we were in the Rialto area.
>
> Sure enough, the two kids were out there waving.
> Then they let us have it. With an SW1500 with 2
> cars and a caboose it didn't take long to stop the
> train. I jumped off the engine and chased them to
> one of the kids back yard. The mother came out
> and asked what was going on. I told her what had
> been happening almost every time we came by. She
> asked her son about it and he said yes, he and his
> buddy would throw rocks at the train whenever it
> came by. I told the mother and then son to go sit
> on the engine and let me throw rocks at them and
> see how much they liked that. They decided they
> didn't want to do that.
>
> After the mom heard my story about how one of my
> long time friends lost the sight in one eye
> because of a rock thrower, she proceeded to beat
> the crap out of her son. Talk about child abuse!
> Poor kid. But he deserved it in my opinion.
>
> On the way back from San Dimas, the son was
> standing out by the tracks and was waving to us as
> we went by. I politely waved back and smiled. To
> my knowledge, we didn't have any more rock
> throwing incidents in that area.
>
> steamjocky