I suppose, I'll try to keep short so not to bore everybody. Late 80s, CNW ran 4 man crews. However, the Cheap & Nothing Wasted would only give us one hand-held for the whole crew. I was rear on NPEMA (North Platte-East Minnie manifest), a pointless position since we had a FRED and no caboose on this trip. At Merriam, there was a junction with a couple of branches, and 2 locals dropped cars there for us.

Coming up to do the pickup, conductor gave me the radio and told me to walk the cut, they would line the east switch, and I would control the move. I bailed off the lead unit (TRAILING foot first per CNW rules) and proceeded to walk the cut. I was delayed by hand brakes applied and hoses unmade in the middle of the cut (around 25 or 30 cars, if I remember). The whole time, my radio stayed silent.

Don't know what its like now, but then the junction was nowhere, in the middle of a forest, dark as pitch. When I got to the front, lead car had its knuckle closed, so I went in to open it-didn't see anything else when I got to the front.

As I bent down to open the knuckle, I caught a reflection in my glasses-lantern signal for one car. Twirl around to see a black company gondola rolling towards me, about 30 feet away. Rest of crew had changed their mind and was making the joint with hand signals. Engineer (only other one with a radio) failed to call me with this development.

Could have been knuckled, but wasn't. Moral here is don't assume anything, and don't always trust your coworkers at 2 in the morning after you've been on for 10.

CN (in the US, not sure about Canada) permits getting on and off moving equipment except when there is snow and ice on the ground. As far as I know they are the only Class I that still does.

I know CSX has prohibited dismounting moving equipment at least since the late '90's, and I believe NS does also. They teach how to do so in an emergency, and stress that it is only to be done in an emergency. Doing so as a matter of course is a chargeable offense. I have met more than a few old trainmen whose knees are shot from getting on and off moving equipment for over 30 years. Heck, they don't even want you climbing standing equipment anymore to set hand brakes, they have gone to brake sticks for such things, and static drops of cars are now prohibited under most circumstances, let alone doing a running switch. I think most newer, non-fan employees will tell you that they think the changes are for the better, even if they slow things down a little. I'm sure we will eventually find out the whole story of what happened, and I hope this incident becomes generally known in the tourist railroad/museum field, so the occasional volunteers will realize that the dangers of the industry apply to them as well.

A few years ago I came across a BNSF crew in a town that shall be nameless kicking cars into a flat yard. The brakeman was riding some of the kicks to fine-tune the car velocity by applying hand brake tension. I stopped to enjoy this display of railroading skill. The crew freaked out, stopped work, and asked me if I was a railroad official. I told 'em I was just a railfan bystander admiring their skill and my lips were sealed. Kicking resumed.