Is this a first for a railway museum?

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/sep ... -tortoise/

I was once nipped in the ankle by a snapping turtle while stainding in a puddle while throwing a switch at the Bemis Bag Plant on the Black River & Western in Flemington NJ back in summer of 1977. Big nasty thing, would not let go, almost 2 feet wide, scared the hell out of me and the locomotive engineer at the time. David Notarius, London UK, ex New Hope PA

A member who was the engineer on one of our passenger carrying trains, brought the engine to a stop when it appeared he would run over a dog on the tracks. He was subject to much criticism by others in the operating department for stopping the train. My feeling is that he did the right thing. Ours is a tourist train after all. I wondered if other museums that operate trains have a rule (written or unwritten) about this.

Les

Do you have to have a "rule," written or unwritten, to act as a civilized and concerned human being?

I'd hope not......

The crew has given their passengers a new reason to talk positively about the ride to others.

If the train can be stopped with a normal service application of the brakes to avoid striking an animal, that's good. If the animal jumps in front of the train, and stopping short would require an "emergency" application that might result in injury to a passenger or crew member, that's another situation entirely.

One incident I witnessed that sticks in my mind was a commuter train that had just left a suburban station. A stray dog got onto the tracks, and didn't move, although the engineer sounded the horn several times. The train didn't stop and the dog perished.

Bob -

Thanks for the comments. A commuter train where schedules have to be kept is one thing. Tourist or museum trains, which operate under a more lax schedule, and at lower speeds generally, is an entirely different matter. In the case of the dog mentioned earlier in this thread, a slow, safe stop was able to be made. Our trains have come very close to hitting deer on our runs, and no reduction was considered in those instances as it would have required throwing the train into emergency.

Les

I've braked for deer once or twice, but typically they appear and run across the tracks so quickly it's impossible to react. And for several years there was a dog at a nearby farmhouse that would run alongside, barking at every train that went by. He was smart enough not to get in the way, so nobody bothered to slow down.

Turtles like to lay their eggs on the right of way.

Here's a couple of photos