So many questions come to mind..... but it shows, even a park train can cause some damage!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4ztJPUehdY

Wow! Amazing video. I hope no one was hurt.

MS

And to think we were squabbling about whether or not park trains were "real trains"...

;)

Is that a "public road crossing," and if so does that make the railroad part of the "general system"? :)

Google Maps of the location: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Car-collides-with-Hermann-Park-miniature-train-5159400.php

An article from the Houston Chronicle: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Car-collides-with-Hermann-Park-miniature-train-5159400.php

There are more photos, but some are not from the day of the accident.

I like the headline, "Car collides with Hermann Park miniature train", usually the train is blamed for the collision. It looks like the car stopped in the crossing while the gates were up, before the train activated them. So many people don't know you should not stop on a RR crossing.

-Mark

Note that nobody in the video says, “Is everyone okay?” after the impact, and instead are telling people to get photos. Wouldn’t shock me if people immediately jumped out and went nuts with their cell phones and took selfies...

And like many other car vs. train collisions, no permanent harm to the train-just a few things that heating and beating and a fresh coat of paint will take care of. You have to remember that even a 7.5 inch gauge locomotive can easily weigh in at 800 pounds dry (without fuel or water). Add water, fuel and the engineman and you're topping half a ton just for the locomotive.

If it looks like a train and sounds like a train.....

Not to mention the kinetic force of it rolling down the tracks. Looks like a long train and filled with people, I bet this train had a similar impact force of a small standard-gague locomotive when it hit.

The Federal Railroad Administration doesn't claim to regulate railroads of less than 24 inch gauge.

The train in this incident runs on two foot gauge tracks. I used to run a 16 inch gauge miniature train the route of which crossed the entry road into the museum but was only protected by crossbucks and a stop sign. In one scary incident a driver stopped at the sign protecting the crossing and even though the train was clearly visible coming, only yards away, with its headlight on and blowing its horn, the driver never looked to the side at all and pulled out across the track just before the train got to the crossing. I put on the brakes and fortunately the driver kept moving as the train missed the back of the car by inches. We were too close to stop before the crossing. This was what it took to get crossing gates at this point, but it also illustrates just how badly drivers of cars can be at such location. And this was probably over 12 years ago, when cell phones weren't as common and before texting. When I found the driver minutes later and had a few words with her she had no idea what I was talking about. What train?