Crescent ATN & TCL
OBS Chief
If I remember correctly there are 2 doors on a single level car and the bars. The first door is the automatic push button door we are all familiar with, this door should be turned off when it is on the tail of a train. When the automatic door is off it has to be manually forced open and closed. The second door is sort of hidden when the car is mid-train. The second door is pushed into the vestibule wall and locked into place when the car is mid-train, when it is on the end of the train it is locked closed. Then you have 1-2 lateral bars that lock into place.
I would guess it is safe to assume a Superliner is set up in the same way. I don't remember specifically noticing the set-up, but assuming the set-up is the same the passenger would have needed to negotiate 3 barriers to be able to fall, jump, or be pushed from the rear of the train. Of course this also means I'm assuming that we live a perfect world where all 3 of these barriers are in place and functioning every time.
My guess is the passenger left the train through a side door, that was either left open of was opened by himself. I would also guess that "on the track" means on or near the ROW.
Of course if we consider suicide as a possibility then both the rear and side doors are likely.
A third possibility is the passenger de-trained at the prior stop. Its possible he exited the train and the train began to leave, so he grabbed onto some part of the train. Since he was a retired railroad employee, he would have known how to hold on to a train car for an extended period of time. He may have grabbed onto his departing train hoping that he could make it to a door and get back on, or that he could hold on until the next station.
Personally I don't think we will ever know for sure how he ended up outside the train.
I would guess it is safe to assume a Superliner is set up in the same way. I don't remember specifically noticing the set-up, but assuming the set-up is the same the passenger would have needed to negotiate 3 barriers to be able to fall, jump, or be pushed from the rear of the train. Of course this also means I'm assuming that we live a perfect world where all 3 of these barriers are in place and functioning every time.
My guess is the passenger left the train through a side door, that was either left open of was opened by himself. I would also guess that "on the track" means on or near the ROW.
Of course if we consider suicide as a possibility then both the rear and side doors are likely.
A third possibility is the passenger de-trained at the prior stop. Its possible he exited the train and the train began to leave, so he grabbed onto some part of the train. Since he was a retired railroad employee, he would have known how to hold on to a train car for an extended period of time. He may have grabbed onto his departing train hoping that he could make it to a door and get back on, or that he could hold on until the next station.
Personally I don't think we will ever know for sure how he ended up outside the train.