The Como-Harriet Streetcar Line's latest operating challenge, as reported by a volunteer.

I've thought I'd seen it all down at Lake Harriet...

...deer on the track, rabbits on the track, goofy neighbors, bad weather, you name it. Now we have a new "problem" - and yes, this DID happen.... wow.

The newest threat to streetcar safety is.... hammocks.

Yes, hammocks.

First run last night, as we're just passing the wooded area North of the bridge and coming out into the archery range, there's two men with their... hammocks. One is tied to an overhead pole on the pole side of the tracks and streached to a nearby tree, the other is being tied to that pole, but this one was streached ACROSS the tracks from the other side.

Just.... wow.

I slow down while ringing the bell ALOT, the one guy DID stop tieing the hammock and tossed it aside so I could get by, and I stopped by them. I did inform them that we DO run more than just weekends (their mistake) and that with 600 volts above their heads, probably not a good idea to tie hammocks to the overhead poles. After the end of the line talk, they were gone.

So.... is this a one time occurance? Or will there be a flood of hammocks criss-crossing our tracks like sand on the desert? Do we equip our streetcars with hammock cutters on the front ends? Do we add a "hammock procedure" to our Sequence of Operation? Or should we just ram them so hard they wake up thinking maybe a hammock across the tracks wasn't such a bright idea....

All kidding aside, that WAS the first (and probably only time) I'll see that on our line.

Hopefully....

Feel free to pass this along to anyone else needing a good laugh on a Friday morning!

See ya on the tracks! And NOT in a hammock...

Posted by Aaron Isaacs, board member
Minnesota Streetcar Museum

Aaron -

Very funny story! Let's hope that such future usage does not occur.

It reminds me of a story that one of the members at HVRM told. It seems that his Uncle was a fireman on the old Chesapeake & Ohio trains that ran between Hammond, Indiana and Cincinnati, Ohio over the old C&O of Indiana. One cold, wintery day, when light snow squalls were blowing off of Lake Michigan, he thought he noticed something ahead on the tracks just after the train started its journey southbound from Hammond. He told the engineer, who immediately slowed down the 4-4-2. The C&O in this area, ran in a southeastly direction, and crossed city steets at about a 45 degree angle. As the engine approached, he saw that the object was a car sitting directly on the main, facing south. The engine stopped just short of the car and the fireman climbed down and went over to the car thinking it was abandoned. But when he got there, he found a woman scrunched up against the car door on the front seat obviously trying to keep warm. There was no one in the drivers seat. He knocked on the car window, and the woman startled, rolled the window down a bit. He said nothing, but stepped slightly to the side and pointed to the front of the Atlantic, now sitting just about 20 feet or so away. Needless to say, the lady jumped up and was out of the car in a flash! It turns out after she calmed down, that her male companion (husband or boy friend) had gone for help when the car had stalled on the tracks. Apparently the snow was a bit heavier when the stall had occurred and they did not even realize where the car had come to a rest. A bit of a push by our members Uncle to move the car forward a bit, a quick climb back onto the deck and the train continued on its journey.

Les

I was told once that on the Milwaukee Road tracks from Port Townsend to Port Angeles, Washington that ran through an area directly next to a campground it wasn't uncommon for people to tie their tent ropes to the rails. The train ran mostly late at night so must have been exciting to suddenly have a very bright light and your tent falling on top of you.

Richard Wilkens

In the meeting hall at Orange Empire we have a "photomural" showing a Pacific Electric wooden interurban on an excursion via a lightly-used line in Orange County. The car is stopped while crew and railfans deal with a cow. The story goes that on weekends, when there were no trains scheduled, Bossy's owner would tether her to a rail and let her munch the greenery on either side of the track. Apparently it took a bit of persuasion to get the bovine to "moooooove" into the clear.

The Santa Cruz Big Trees and Pacific Railroad has a stretch of track called "The Arch" where a retaining wall drops 50'-60' from the ties to another 60'-70' of steep hillside the base of which is the San Lorenzo River. Many years ago, Vince Barto and I were out on the motor car to change some ties when we came across a group of adults in their 20's repelling down the concrete retaining wall. Their ropes were tied off to the rail. An A-4 with a few hundred pounds of ties and track tools on it might have cut the rope if we'd run over it. In the defense of the mountaineers, they did claim to have called the office to find out if freight was running that day.

Some fire company was rapping off the cliffs on the former Reading Belt Line when we hammered through northbound with ex-CP ten-wheeler No. 972 back in '85. Boy, did they look startled ...

Maybe 18 years ago while on my last trip for the evening on the McKinney Avenue streetcar through a somewhat dark, residential neighborhood, I was shocked to find an automobile parked on the tracks probably around midnight. I though maybe somebody left the car on the tracks for a quick trip into their apartment or something so I rang the bell a few times to let them know I was there. I got ahold of dispatch on the radio and made arrangements for a tow truck to be sent. While waiting, I rang the bell more and louder so the offending parties might know I was waiting for them to return to the car. After a few rings, a head pops up in the front seat and half a second later another head pops up. The driver puts the car into gear and drives off. Apparently I interrupted something. Not a good place to "park", IMO.

A number of years ago (early 80's) we used to allow the public to fish in our ponds. One day, just after decending a 1.5% grade, I released the brakes (6ET & "K" car brakes), fortunately only a 2 car train. Around an adjoining blind left curve, what should appear, but the fishermen. Set up in the middle of the track, on a narrow earth dam between two ponds, spare rods, tackle box and folding camp stools. all between the rails Being somewhere between release and recharged, I big holed the train and got stopped. Chased them out of that location, advised them we were operating for the day, released an proceeded. The very next trip, rounded a right curve and found them set up again. I really had to consided the consequences of making some nice short ice fishing rods and upsetting their tackle boxes for them.

One of our crews suprised a couple of Army guys who were practicing rappelling from a seldom used tall bridge on our line. They apparenly got really excited and rather agitated when the train showed up.

It seems they had tied the rapelling ropes to the rail. Apparently the train's immiment approach caused them some concerned. "Cliff diving/base jumping without a 'chute" hadn't been on their agenda for the day. Fortunately, the train stopped until they could scramble back up and get clear of the tracks.

Hopefully these weren't CIA special ops team members...

I was expecting people to be telling stories about coming around curves and finding photographers taking shots of models on the tracks, as I've heard that's something the class 1s are encountering often. Trains magazine even talked about that in a recent issue. I am on a (non-RR-oriented) photography site and see LOTS of model portfolio shots on RR tracks.I'm not surprised, as getting the use of repelling towers is really tough at an Army post (and requires an amazing amount of safety paperwork that most people won't sign off on anyway) as there's usually only just one tower at most posts. Most soldiers never repell past their basic training unless they're in a combat role (and often not even then, usually it's the one in Special Ops roles). And a National Guard unit? Heck, those folks are lucky to even have ropes and gloves issued to them, forget about having a real place to repel off of! I'd be willing to bet a lot that the people you almost performed gravity experiments on were doing this on their own personal time.

When I worked for the Ohio Central we operated a short stretch of the B&O Lake Main through downtown Warren, OH. Up around Vine Street the encroachment was pretty fierce, with sheds built on the right of way and mowed lawns extending all the way up to the ties.

Well one day I was called to pilot the weed spraying truck up that line, and when we got up by the trailer park at the Mahoning Avenue crossing we spotted a woman in a bikini sunning herself on a lounge chair just a few feet from the rails. The spray truck operator was so enamored with staring at her rather cute posterior that he forgot to turn off the spray wands as we went by. Needless to say there were not any weeds growing on that woman that summer!

A couple of weeks later we make a regular run over the line, an SW switcher and a couple of gons out of Copperweld, and as we approach the Vine Street crossing a man waves us down. He is rather irate and reading us the riot act about our weed spraying killing half of HIS front yard and his entire garden. At about that time I made the comment that while his tomatoes may be dead, his garden had the healthiest crop of whistle posts I had ever seen!

For a short while I volunteered at that forgotten and frequently attempted at abandonment state park/railroad museum of the State of California, known as Railtown. The Sierra Railroad was home to a number of backwoods/ hillbilly/ Western TV shows and movies, such as Petticoat Junction. While on one trip, the train came to an unusual stop at a tall fill. Apparently some gold miners were setting up a dredge operation on Woods Creek (a notoriously rich stream) and had tied ropes to drop equipment down 70 feet to the stream. A pickup truck parked with tires between the rails had to move away so the train could pass. The miners did not stick around, and left a high-grade sluice machine behind, between the rails. Perhaps they were an illegal operation, or were certifiably not sober one way or another.

It pays to have your eyes open while in operations - not causing damage to clueless people is part of the job.

Yep, run into that on at least one line around here when they do a weekday school/etc. charter, and the "trespassers" thought we only ran on weekends. At least three incidents of photographers with models in "indecent exposure" have reached my ears--and this is NOT isolated rural trackage, mind you.

The issue with trespassing rappellers tying ropes to the rails has become a serious one; I have memory of at least three incidents that I have heard of where rappellers have plunged to their deaths from trains splicing their rail-tied ropes. I recall one incident being at NJ Transit's former Erie RR Moodna Viaduct, and I suspect it's happened on the B&O/CSX/MARC Thomas Viaduct at least once.

why do you think these old streetcars were built with these HUGE peoplecatchers...

While working on a short line in the North East, we were operating part of the line or passengers on Sundays only from May through October.

During the winter, we were running a work train and came across two track speeders headed towards us. They dove for cover but we stopped well short. These guys thought that since the rails were rusty at the other end, the track was abandoned.

Guess that learned never to assume(and to keep a clean pair of shorts handy)