# My Railroad "Disaster" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 13, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-railroad-disaster/596135 "2011-09-13T03:24:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tonyfop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/85f322/32.png) [@tonyfop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tonyfop)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-railroad-disaster/596135/21 "2011-09-14T22:05:32Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Which of these is true? You weren’t hidden in the bushes all day long. You also don’t know whether you delayed someone who was having a medical emergency without an ambulance (like say, a woman’s water just broke and her hubby was driving her to the ER). You could have gotten someone fired because they were late to work. > > I’m not sure why you created this thread, if you didn’t expect to get called on doing something monumentally fucking stupid and thoughtless. It’s not even relevant whether what you did was legal/illegal. I’m trying to make you aware that what you did was an immoral, shitbag thing to do, because you still don’t seem to understand that. Ok, so lets parse my thinking on making this thread, and maybe my thinking 27 years ago. 1. In the article that I linked to, there is a story about someone doing something monumentally fucking stupid and derailing a coal car and dumping tons of coal and screwing up a rail-yard. You did read the link, right? 2. This story reminded me of when I did something monumentally fucking stupid, and screwed stuff up on an even bigger scale. 3. I posted this story in a forum called “Mundane Pointless Stuff I must Share” because I did not have a point when I posted it. I just wanted to draw a parallel with the other story about how I caused a monumental fuck-up on a railroad. 4. I was approximately 13 years old when I did this. Teenagers are notorious for not thinking through any of their actions. This is another example of this phenomenon. Do you think that I knew that I was going to cause all of that chaos before I did it? Because if you do, then you ascribe much higher forethought skills to teenagers than they deserve. So was it a shitbag action? A shitbag action would have been to see all of that carnage, and then to do it again because you thought it was funny, or to be an adult, or someone with prior knowledge of the workings of a railroad, and do it anyway. That would be a shitbag action. Was it irresponsible? A resounding yes to that! But as I said responsibility is not a strong point for 13 year old boys. 5. Since I am now a 41 year old, with 19 years in the Navy, who is responsible for overseeing the maintenance on helicopters to the point where I sign for the aircraft to tell the pilot that their aircraft is safe for flight, and I have lives that depend on my decisions daily, I would say that I outgrew that phase in my life really well. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-railroad-disaster/596135/22 "2011-09-14T23:18:32Z")
> [@tonyfop](#): > > 1. Since I am now a 41 year old, with 19 years in the Navy, who is responsible for overseeing the maintenance on helicopters to the point where I sign for the aircraft to tell the pilot that their aircraft is safe for flight, and I have lives that depend on my decisions daily, I would say that I outgrew that phase in my life really well. Advertising the stupid shit you did as a kid doesn’t make you “cool” in my book. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-railroad-disaster/596135/23 "2011-09-14T23:22:08Z")
I don’t think he sounds proud of it, was trying to brag, or wants to be considered “cool” for what he did. I think your huffy attitude is totally misdirected…come off it. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-railroad-disaster/596135/24 "2011-09-14T23:28:52Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Advertising the stupid shit you did as a kid doesn’t make you “cool” in my book. Nobody cares about your book. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-railroad-disaster/596135/25 "2011-09-14T23:30:28Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Advertising the stupid shit you did as a kid doesn’t make you “cool” in my book. I’m trying to figure out how you’re reading into his comments that he thinks what he did was cool. I’m not seeing it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-railroad-disaster/596135.md?page=1)