Do you freight engineers hate these types of people?

I'd say it is a highly likely they do...

http://youtu.be/wHcJejtuPGk

Yes I greatly despise these little pricks. They need to get a life and stop screwing with people who are just trying to make a living, something they wouldn't understand...Remember kids, Karma is a biatch!

Looks like in the YouTube videos, based on their conversations and actions that they were not targeting the engines or the crew; but yes, I am not fond of people who do this. I have known crews that have been targeted; one with a slingshot (and was hit), and another with an air rifle; burying the pellet in his cheek. Another crew was attacked with rocks while the train was stopped. The perpetrators threw rocks with enough force to crack the glazing on the conductors door, and injuring one of them with a rock to the back of the head/neck. I have personally been threatened with violence for no reason other than I was just a target of opportunity, while stopped waiting to meet another train. The only thing that prevented an assault was heavy underbrush and a steep embankment between me and the would-be assailants; that, and they sounded as if they were under the influence.

I've seen objects arranged on the rails in such a manner in an apparent attempt to cause a derailment. I have encountered stacks of tie plates placed on the rails; cinderblocks, shopping carts, furniture, blocks of wood, ammunition. Yep, good times. I have an answer for people that like to give me the finger at crossings. I'll squat that train down to 10 MPH, or under, and make 'em wait that much longer.

I've been on the receiving end of scenerios like this. To me, its just part of the stress that we live under. I've been shot at and shot. I've had objects thrown at my train, my engine, or me. There have been more situations than I can count where various objects have been placed on the tracks. I hope none of these events were taken with the intent of actually hurting someone (me) or causing realistic damage to my train. Although when someone shoots at you, it's a little hard to take that perspective. I think that in most instances, people don't realize the potential consequences of their actions. I've seen first hand the damage a pellot gun or pump BB gun can do to a windshield or side window on an engine, and I count my blessings whenever I think about the day that I closed a side window right before some 14 year old kid decided to shoot at it (and I think about it every day and the potential effect that that one act would have had on me, and my family).

Kids and people in general don't have a chance in hell in Russia when they do this they don't take things vary lightly there. I remember taking the train there a few times on business and they did have a few armed sharp shooters that would shoot at people for doing stupid stuff like that.

This is crazy. They wouldn't like to be done that way if it were reversed. I remember a crew that used have rocks thrown in a small town in Georgia. One broke the engineer's glasses. They'd call the cops, but they never got there in time. Fed up, one afternoon, these punks threw rocks again and the engineer "bigholed" it and screeched to an unexpected stop. The crew got down and gave chase. They didn't wait for no cops: they beat the Sh* out of them, then climbed up on the engine and proceeded out of town. The punks couldn't identify their "assailants". There were no more rocks thrown!!!!!!!

GF

Gadfly wrote:This is crazy. They wouldn't like to be done that way if it were reversed. I remember a crew that used have rocks thrown in a small town in Georgia. One broke the engineer's glasses. They'd call the cops, but they never got there in time. Fed up, one afternoon, these punks threw rocks again and the engineer "bigholed" it and screeched to an unexpected stop. The crew got down and gave chase. They didn't wait for no cops: they beat the Sh* out of them, then climbed up on the engine and proceeded out of town. The punks couldn't identify their "assailants". There were no more rocks thrown!!!!!!!

GF

I recall a similar account that took place like that here in New York with one of the short lines when they first started the crew chased the kids with a wrench nobody was hurt and nothing happened it was enough to make the kids think twice about throwing rocks at the crew and attempt to jump the train while moving. The Cops sided with the crew.

Throw a rock at a nearby house or automobile where they are stoning your train. Private property damage and insurance claims generate more police interest than a train crew reporting vandals on the tracks.

We used to shoot the kids with the fire extinguisher. If they didn't get the hint on the return trip, we'd break a window in the neighborhood to get the police more involved in handling trespassers.

On the older SD-40's, the toilet tank could be released from a big outlet pipe under the conductor's side cab window. It would shoot out a good 4 or 5 feet from the side of the train. The release valve was in the cab nose between the sandbox and toilet. It's hard to get the stars to line up and have the punks on the same side as the release pipe,.....BUT MAN, NOTHING SPELLS PAYBACK LIKE HOSING DOWN A BUNCH OF PUNKS IN A COCKTAIL OF BLUE FORMALDEHYDE AND 15 DAY OLD MARINATED RAILROADER POO THATS BEEN COOKING IN A HOT CAB FOR 2 LONG WEEKS IN THE SUMMER.

I'm sure its not just freight engineers, there's a reason the MBTA and others had those grills
http://photos.cityrails.net/showpic/?ph ... 510667.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

While I don't work freight, I did hit a fire extinguisher that put me in emergency thanks to some local miscreants near Wilmington De.

10more years wrote:I've been on the receiving end of scenerios like this. To me, its just part of the stress that we live under. I've been shot at and shot. I've had objects thrown at my train, my engine, or me. There have been more situations than I can count where various objects have been placed on the tracks. I hope none of these events were taken with the intent of actually hurting someone (me) or causing realistic damage to my train. Although when someone shoots at you, it's a little hard to take that perspective. I think that in most instances, people don't realize the potential consequences of their actions. I've seen first hand the damage a pellot gun or pump BB gun can do to a windshield or side window on an engine, and I count my blessings whenever I think about the day that I closed a side window right before some 14 year old kid decided to shoot at it (and I think about it every day and the potential effect that that one act would have had on me, and my family).

you guys are not alone.i am a early retired driver(engineer) on british freight(and passenger for a while) for 35 years.in that time,i had a shotgun fired at me,pepering the side of the cab,a concrete paving stone smashing through my cab window,a motorbike dropped from a bridge,breaking my air pipes between loco and first wagon,laser pens shone in my eyes,a shopping trolley piled up with rocks placed on the track with me hitting it and getting jammed under the loco plus so many incidents of stone throwing,i lost count. trouble is,unless it was a regular hotspot,it was nearly impossible for our transport police to take action. I think it seems to be a world wide problem. but now im retired,and livinf=g in south west france,its nice not to have to worry about these things! I would also like to say hello,and a happy new year to fellow engineers in the states.keith

People who throw rocks at trains or do any other malicious butthattery around railroad property should spend some quality time in jail, or with both their hands in plaster casts, or both.
Butthats.

Standard operating procedure for operating in a bad neighborhood: Lock the front and rear doors, close the windows, turn off interior lights and if you have to stop. Stop with the slack stretched so people don't go pulling pins on you

MichaelB86 wrote:Standard operating procedure for operating in a bad neighborhood: Lock the front and rear doors, close the windows, turn off interior lights and if you have to stop. Stop with the slack stretched so people don't go pulling pins on you

That happened in Tulsa back early spring 2013. The Crew of a Westbound Auto rack train went into a siding for a crew change. Approx. 24 cars back someone pulled the pin but who ever did it knew what they were doing when opening and closing the cox's on the air lines. A West bound stack train approaching about a mile back behind the auto train reported a green light suddenly going to Red so they called the dispatcher who told crew that he did not know what was there but there was defiantly something on the main line. So the dispatcher called the crew of the auto rack train and asked the conductor to walk his train which he did only to get on the radio to tell the dispatcher that half his train was gone by the time anyone had figured out what was going on the guys in the stack train had already jumped. BNSF The NTSB, FRA, and FBI have been on a man hunt for some time now with the city of Tulsa offering a bounty out for the person arrest of the person(s) who pulled the pin Last I know it was near $100,000.00 dollars and the FBI already has a suspect in there sights it's believed a transient or a homeless person did it.