And THIS time, it was caught on video!

https://www.facebook.com/10004800714491 ... 1293923735

Videographer said it was shot near Nokomis, Ill. on Tuesday, Sept. 10th, and didn't notice the "intruder" until reviewing his video today.

Note that the wayward drone struck 4014's BELL. Within an hour someone had reposted the clip to social media with a "Taco Bell" "ding" perfectly dubbed in.

I'd say the jury is out on that without seeing the original video. Video on Facebook is low resolution. Looking at it frame by frame, the drone disappears behind the fireman's side and a few frames later magically reappears supposedly impacting just left of the bell. Too many artifacts in the frames around the bell and as the supposed drone falls. The bit flying off to the left is a nice touch but it disappears before it makes it to the cluttered background.

Just my opinion on a low res video. I could be wrong.

It looks like 4014 passes the drone and then it magically reappears a few seconds later. Taking it frame by frame, I think what really happened is the drone ended up directly under the fireman's side number board where it kept flying for a brief period of time probably as obstacle avoidance kept it moving in step with the train. At some point impact was made and the drone was flung upward to ricochet off the bell to be flung forward for the second visible impact with the smokebox door. Agree that the resolution and shadowing make it look odd, but I think it is legit.

The video compression has plenty of artifacts & makes it difficult but what are probably shards of propeller can be seem flying off at about the 1 o'clock position from the left number board during the 4 second time frame. I first thought it was dust on my monitor. I doubt anyone would take the time to dummy that in for a spoof............mld

One one level this is humorous, feeding the various foamer stories... but on another level, if the drone was in the path of the locomotive it may be a violation of Federal law...

I heard they were painting a little drone on the cab side with an X over it like they did on WWII planes.

I have been sent the original resolution video by Mr. Jensen, and examined it frame by frame.

If it's a fake, it's a masterful one. The drone starts jumping vertically just too late, and strikes the vicinity of the bell (or the bell strikes it, your call) tossing it slightly to the viewer's left (engineer's side) and then falling down to whatever is to the lower side of the smokebox front. More importantly, the shadow of the drone crosses the smokebox front both before and after the collision. No faker's going to go through that much trouble to add that.

If I can give any benefit of doubt to the apparent operator, there may have been a lag time between signalling a command to rise upwards and the drone's reaction. An experienced drone operator should have anticipated this and moved sooner, or possibly there was a loss of signal at the wrong moment. Mr. Jensen has said he believes the drone operator was on the other side of the track from him, but paid no attention and didn't even see the collision until reviewing the video two days later.