She had apparently been enjoying a few adult beverages and somehow lost her footing while trying to board the train, fell beneath the wheels, and was killed.
The story has always fascinated me, partly due to the grisliness of it, and partly due to the idea that she intended to escape an ugly situation by hopping the train. I wish I had gotten the chance to know her.
I imagine she'd have been "interesting" to know.
Trains and helicopters... Aren't they pretty much opposites as to what they do and how they do it?
"Simplify and add lightness" is the aeronautical engineer's credo. Make a part BARELY heavy and strong enough to do what it must do without failing and killing people.
With trains, seems to me, the opposite is true. The weight of the locomotive is absolutely critical to the machine's ability to do what it must do.
Weight? Schmate!
My fascination with trains has lead me to the guy in the video below... "Hobo Shoestring".
He looks like a bum. He's got a Southern twang to his speech that would make someone from one of the coasts dismiss him as a "rube".
He's neither. He owns an apartment in Johnson City, Tennessee, and refers to himself "houseless, NOT homeless". He has produced and published LOTS... maybe hundreds, of videos about how the rail system and components of trains work, and he ain't dumb... to me he's VERY interesting.
If you, like me, have an interest in how trains do what they do, I think you'll find taking the time to watch his stuff worthwhile.
Start with this one, and lemme know what you think:
2 comments:
Whatever else that man may be he is well spoken. Having lived along side the rails from 4 to 16, with some of those years my father a section foreman, I've always been fascinated with railroads.
Interesting videos, and very knowledgable!
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