I have just been informed of an accident involving the Minnesota Transportation Museum's train killing a person standing on the track in Shorewood, Minnesota (just north of the Twin Cities). http://www.startribune.com/local/east/121000319.html

According to the article the accident was unavoidable, but still tragic.

The MTM train was the annual spring ferry move of MTM excursion rolling stock from the Jackson Street roundhouse in St. Paul to the Osceola and St. Croix Valley RR, MTM's tourist railway operated out of Osceola, Wisconsin on CN, ex-Wisconsin Central, exx-Soo line Dresser sub. The equipment is typically returned to Jackson Street in the fall for winter storage and maintenance.

I am not trying to be harsh but...how was this "unavoidable"? And how can a human being not be able to step off the track when a train is coming? How fast was the train going?

I hate that this happened.

Just for the record, that's not me, different person, same name.

According to other stories I found with internet searches, the accident happened on a curve, apparently a "blind curve," and the victim did not move or react to the horn-blowing, etc. until the last second or so. It appeared he was engrossed in taking a photograph (not necessarily a photo of the train, it seems), possibly with his cell phone found at the scene. The train was operating under the speed limit for the track section, according to articles; the track is apparently used by multiple operators.

I apologize for my poor choice of word. Of course, almost every single accident is avoidable--in hindsight.

I understand that the locomotive used in this ferry move was not MTM's but another roads, with that road's engineer running said locomotive. So hopefully MTM will not be harmed by this unfortunate accident.

I wonder if we need to see the return of the cowcatcher, old time streetcars had this huge basket catcher for the sole purpose to knock a person off their feet and land in the basket safely or hopefully.

Like our Twin City Rapid Transit Company "gate car" No. 1239. Crude but effective.

Some of the LARy cars at Orange Empire have a similar device called an Eclipse Fender. Visitors will sometimes ask, "Is that a cow-catcher?" and I will tell them, "No, it's a people-catcher" and explain that it was developed about a hundred years ago because many streetcar lines ran in areas where there were saloons, and men would emerge from these establishments in an "impaired" condition. I then take out my cell phone and say something like "Today we have a new problem, people walking under the influence of cell phones."

Probably about fifteen years ago when I was the Wisconsin Central trainmaster out of New Brighton (Minneapolis-St. Paul) it was my usual duty and pleasure to pilot the annulal MTM equipment move out to Osceola on the Dresser Sub. in the spring and bring them back in the fall.

On particular day while in the cab of their old (now sadly out of service) NP 328, 4-6-0 and hauling a few pieces of equipment, in the same town as this fatailty, a young 12 year old boy (with less brains than a lemon) stood right between the rails of the track focusing his camera, as the on-coming train approached and refused to move. After the engineer repeatedly whistled a warning and seeing the kid not making an effort to move out of the way, I had him stop the movement, I got down off the locomotive and asked the kid(still standing between the rails) if he had "s... between his ears" since a a person with a brain would have moved off the right of way. I'll never forget his reply: "I knew if I stood right on the track i would get the best picture and the train would stop for me". So help me I wanted to physically throw the kid in the ditch. He was "dumber than a box of rocks".

Barry

As for the kid who stood between the rails "knowing that the train would stop," perhaps you should first have found his bonehead parents and threw them in the ditch first, followed by the kid.

Kids are not born with intelligence, it's the responsibility of parents to instill it in them. Given what I've seen of certain kids lately, the parents aren't doing much of a job.

David, I wholeheartedly agree.

That's why the best place for excursions is on museum properties where good folks like those which inhabit this site can deal patiently with the generally "brain dead" public and assume their liabilities but not on the rails of Class 1s, regionals and short lines.

Barry