My wife and I were in a small South Central Kentucky town yesterday checking out the antique stores. This little burg sits on the CSX line between Louisville and Nashville, old L&N line.
I had seen a number of freights blow by at 50+MPH most of the afternoon. Then, as I was standing close to the tracks a large semi-truck started to cross. At the same time the gates started down and he had the front of his hood almost up to the tracks. The gate landed on his hood just in front of the windshield. He started to back up, but smoething on the hood caught the gate. He made it back this far.
He jumped out of the cab and tried to lift the gate. Amazingly it lifted some and stayed in that position long enough he could back up further.
But, it still wasn't far enough. A fellow on the other side pushed the gate up, again, from the center of the road. All the while the train is bearing down on the scene. Finally, he was able to get the truck back enough to clear the gate.
By this time I realized the train had slowed some, but still came by doing 20-30 MPH. As the engine passed the truck, the engineer gave a wave to the truck driver, or at least it looked like a way. May have been another gesture.
By now the engine is almost up to where I'm standing. Then it dawned me - I wasn't standing in the best place if that truck hadn't have gotten off the track!
I waved at the engineer, too.
I had seen a number of freights blow by at 50+MPH most of the afternoon. Then, as I was standing close to the tracks a large semi-truck started to cross. At the same time the gates started down and he had the front of his hood almost up to the tracks. The gate landed on his hood just in front of the windshield. He started to back up, but smoething on the hood caught the gate. He made it back this far.
He jumped out of the cab and tried to lift the gate. Amazingly it lifted some and stayed in that position long enough he could back up further.
But, it still wasn't far enough. A fellow on the other side pushed the gate up, again, from the center of the road. All the while the train is bearing down on the scene. Finally, he was able to get the truck back enough to clear the gate.
By this time I realized the train had slowed some, but still came by doing 20-30 MPH. As the engine passed the truck, the engineer gave a wave to the truck driver, or at least it looked like a way. May have been another gesture.
By now the engine is almost up to where I'm standing. Then it dawned me - I wasn't standing in the best place if that truck hadn't have gotten off the track!
I waved at the engineer, too.