When I was a kid growing up in the middle of that cornfield the Rock Island railroad tracks were less than a hundred yards away. There was also a creek running through the farm that had a steel trestle over it. In addition there was a wooden bridge my grandfather and father built to get to the fields on the other side. All I can say is that this was a perfect place to play and find adventure for a kid like me.
Let's just say the trains got messed with as they passed by. There was actually passenger service at that time. In any case quite a bit of "things" were put on the rails in the hopes of - well it was an experiment to see what would happen. I was curious back then too. That has not changed. A couple times the section gang foreman made a visit to the house explaining to mom and dad there was getting to be at times an abnormal amount of debris on the rails and could they keep an eye out for suspicious activity. I think he was trying to spare me the spanking but it didn't work.
Before I moved to where I live now my house was maybe 50' away from train tracks. For 17 years I lived there and loved it. These things could put me to sleep within seconds. The house would move just a bit and it's like getting rocked to sleep.
In any case since I had smartened up a bit from the early days the only things I put on the rails were small objects as curiosity is present about what a 130 ton rail car filled with coal wheels would make that object look like. I have some interesting pieces from doing that.
Just want to say you can play safely around trains moving or otherwise but there are rules. Most of these are easy and were not taught to me.
Rule #1 when placing objects on the rail to see what happens and you are there when the train is approaching and the object falls off- do not repeat do not attempt to replace it and get hit by the train. It's that easy.
Luckily this braniac will keep his life but will have a hole in his head.
The way it was.
Candidate for a Darwin Award most definitely.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was little, we had train tracks behind our apt building and I had a friend that had a fabulous imagination. Luckily, this was in the day that the parents didn't watch us so closely. We put plenty of pennies and other inoculous things on the tracks to see what the train would do. Luckily we were smart about and followed rule #1 so we are still alive to tell the tale.
ReplyDeleteYea Lisa G. you had the common sense even when you were little. It's not all that hard. Tanks for da chuckle!
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