So I’m sitting in a queue at the Queen Avenue crossing, one car back. Just when the switch engine looks like it’s about to clear the road so we can go, a Union Pacific freight barrels through on the track we can’t see, on its way south.
Lots of Army gear, it looks like. And some of the Humvees and other vehicles look like they’re coning home from the wars. It’s hard to tell exactly from afar, on a moving train, but some seem to have seen better days.
It gave my video camera something to look at, poking up through the open sunroof. On the darker side, that very situation also demonstrates the fatal folly of ducking around a still-lowered gate once the switch engine has seemingly cleared the crossing. A few months ago, a young man on a bike did so at this crossing and paid with his life. (hh)
Nice catch getting both the W&P 1501 (a SD7 built for the Southern Pacific Railroad 62 years ago), and a military train. Your post is somewhat ironic, as it appears the same train (with different motive power) hit a truck in California the next day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywPDTJR8M4Y
Yep, just confirmed it is the same train that took a big bite of trail mix. Here is the news story:
http://abc30.com/news/caught-on-camera-train-slams-into-semi-truck-near-chowchilla/77742/
If you look at the picture at the bottom on the news article, it shows DODX 42366, and the same car with the same reporting marks (owner and number) 43 seconds into your youtube video.
Thanks for this update. (hh)