Railroaders' Nostalgia > Bubba! The tailgate!

Getting to work on New Years day is something railroaders do all too often. So, I found my self on a westbound grain train on new years day 2002, leaving the home terminal right about one A.M. Rolling along we approached a county road crossing around three A.M. when a pickup raced across the track in front of us when we were about a quarter mile away. Then, after about a hundred feet or so, the truck stops, turns around and starts back toward the tracks. Now, the conductor and I are of course focused on the truck. What is he going to do? I am blowing the whistle over and over and we get to the crossing the same time the truck does. At the last second, I look in front of me and here laying on the crossing planks is a large, dead whitetail buck, antlers and all. WHAM, we hit the deer and hear it reduced to mush under the engine. The conductor is still looking at the truck so the sound of the collision with the deer scares the daylights out of him. It took a while to figure out, but obviously the guy(s) in the truck had been poaching deer with a spotlight, had shot this big deer, put it in the back of the truck and did not raise the tailgate. When they raced over the tracks, the deer bounced out of the truck right in front of us. The poachers got to the crossing just in time to see the deer get hit.
I called fish and game about it, they thought it kind of funny but wanted to know if we could identify the truck which was not possible due to the darkness. So, the poachers got their year off to a bad start, as did the deer.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/18 13:45 by atsfer.

Now THAT is funny! I wonder if the guy(s) involved has to go clean some britches out...

Score one for the animal kingdom...

Lance



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/18 14:29 by santafe199.