# Omnibus Stupid MFers in the news thread (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 5, 2024, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657 "2024-01-05T16:15:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 244
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2025, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4861 "2025-06-28T12:31:16Z")
While all of this is true - I do, after all, live in the area and have to regularly contend with blocked train crossings myself - it still does not excuse or even explain the recent collision in Gary, Indiana. _That_ involved a South Shore Rail Road commuter train, NOT a freight, and trust me, the differences are VERY obvious and well known. SSRR’s only block crossings for minutes as they travel at speeds comparable to cars and trucks and are not nearly as long as freights. Indeed, some of the scheduled SSRR’s are as short as two cars and I don’t ever recall seeing any longer than eight. I rode that very commuter line twice a day five days a week for over a decade so I know what I’m talking about. Crossings for the SSRR commuter rail (they actually have a short-haul freight up by the steel mills but they’re not relevant to the discussion here) are distinctive as it is an electrically powered line so you have overhead pantograph wires and the supports for them. Also, everyone who lives here for any length of time knows very well which crossings are commuter rail and which are freight. The five people in that SUV knew damn well that they’d be inconvenienced _at most_ for five minutes and probably half that. But they still played chicken with the train and lost. The problem with freight trains is unrelated to that accident. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4862 "2025-06-29T00:47:48Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Perhaps they unbelted themselves in a mad panic intending to abandon the suicidal driver? Did you really mean “suicidal” as in “actively desires to kill himself”? Or did you misuse the term when you really meant something more like “monumentally stuoid and unforesightful and reckless?” There’s a vast gulf between those two ideas and it’s IMO a real mistake to conflate them under the name “suicide” ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4863 "2025-06-29T00:54:23Z")
It’s _possible_ that the driver did, in fact, intend to kill himself/herself. Though who the fuck knows? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4864 "2025-06-29T01:05:05Z")
The distinction between suicidal and I-don’t-care-whether-I-live-or-die-reckless does exist, but it helps to have a microscope to be able to examine it. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4865 "2025-06-29T01:09:29Z")
Most reckless is simply unaware of the risk. Not accurately aware of it, but indifferent to the consequences. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4866 "2025-06-29T01:29:46Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > It probably goes back to the days of A-Number-One, _et al_: it takes a certain kind of crazy to ride for hundreds of miles lying on the bars under a box (Sheepishly raises hand) There are Dopers who’ve read a lot of, oh, Douglas Adams; and one, you should know, who perhaps read too much Jack London It’s like that quote from Churchill about the thrill of being shot at and missed: climbing onto something so big, dynamic and deadly, avoiding slamming doors and shifting loads, cops and sketchy companions. And yes, even being shot at and missed. (When your parents would never miss you, hopefully the people whose gardens you were raiding would) Upon return from my misadventures, those who saw me for the damn fool I’d had been were entirely right. No argument there. Although I still believe there was then a reliability in myself that none of them could quite claim. (Stupid MF _not_ in the news) ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4867 "2025-06-29T01:37:50Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Speaking as someone who has been a passenger during such an incident - it ain’t great for _anyone_ on the train. I was on a train in Tokyo when an incident happened. It was in the evening and the train was crowded. They didn’t announce on the train what had happened, and we were stuck for like 45 minutes. It was only afterwards that we found out what happened. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4868 "2025-06-29T02:53:09Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > That someone would think crossing under a passenger car would be a good idea is incomprehensible to me. The conductor I was speaking with was still incensed about it, however far in the past it had been. I believe he gave the woman a right good reaming out. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4869 "2025-06-29T20:06:23Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > ..or at least stringing a ribbon from the back of the chair to the front of the seat, which is what I’ve usually seen. Me, I would’ve put it on a raised platform. Raised platforms have their own perils for the brainless among us. I hope that this person at least receives a hefty fine and feels bad about the damage they caused with their stupid behavior. [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/museumgoer-posing-for-photo-stumbles-into-portrait-of-medici-prince-damaging-historic-painting-180986891/?utm\_medium=distribution&utm\_source=pushly&utm\_campaign=editorial](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/museumgoer-posing-for-photo-stumbles-into-portrait-of-medici-prince-damaging-historic-painting-180986891/?utm_medium=distribution&utm_source=pushly&utm_campaign=editorial) ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2025, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4870 "2025-06-29T21:09:11Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > The conductor I spoke of above told me about the time when the train was halted at a station and a woman with two small children _went under_ the stopped train to cross the tracks. Fortunately they made it before the train started up again. A guy that I went to school with (elementary through high school) and his brother were walking to school one day when their path was blocked by a stopped train. The boys decided to crawl under it to avoid being late for school. The guy I knew made it out okay, but his brother wasn’t so lucky. He lost both legs when the train rolled over them. I spent 8 years on an ambulance as an EMT. I had the opportunity to see the aftermath of a few car/train collisions, and it’s something I hope to never see again. As a passenger on a train (Amtrak used to run a one-way trip from Louisville, Kentucky into Chicago on an overnight run, and I took it several times), I was riding when we stopped because the train had hit a deer. We had to stop for a few hours while they cleaned the carcass out from under the train car. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4871 "2025-06-30T00:13:35Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > we stopped because the train had hit a deer. We had to stop for a few hours while they cleaned the carcass out from under the train car. The train I tok regularly ran through pastures of a large farm, and sometimes I’d see cattle out there. My conductor friend, who’d spent decades in that job on the Boston & Maine RR and its successors, told me that sometimes when farmers had an old cow that wasn’t giving much if any milk any more, they’d open the fence by the tracks and chivvy the cow out there so they could collect damages when a train killed their cow. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4872 "2025-06-30T00:32:59Z")
There’s a reason that angled bit on the front of old locos was called a “cow catcher”. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4873 "2025-06-30T01:21:27Z")
Sometimes when I can’t remember what I was trying to think of earlier, I will say my train of thought hit a cow. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4874 "2025-06-30T01:22:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There’s a reason that angled bit on the front of old locos was called a “cow catcher”. I’ve never seen a Diesel locomotive with a cow-catcher. ISTM they were a steam-locomotive thing. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4875 "2025-06-30T01:48:47Z")
The early diesel “streamliners” tended to have a low front plow that rode just a bit above the rails. The point being to nerf any animal off to the side rather than letting them run under the wheels. See **[EMD F7 - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_F7)** for a classic example. That continues to later models like the **[EMD SD40-2 - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_SD40-2)** and even the current **[EMD SD70 series - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_SD70_series)**. The plow on early steam engines had more slope and was more of an afterthought, but the idea is the same: push the animal off the rails so it doesn’t derail the front wheels. Diesel locomotives, new or old, don’t generally have small pilot wheels. Their first set of wheels are weight-bearing drive wheels. Contrast that with steam locos where the fairly small, fairly light pilot wheels up front were the norm. A cow-sized animal might easily derail those, even though the animal wasn’t nearly large or stout enough to derail the drive wheels. But once even the pilot wheels were derailed, at best the train was forced to stop for repairs and at worst a loco derailment would ensue. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4876 "2025-06-30T01:49:04Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I’ve never seen a Diesel locomotive with a cow-catcher. While they don’t have the archetypical big pointy “cow catcher” of old, many diesel locomotives do have a snowplow mounted as part of the “pilot,” which is also designed to redirect items (such as, yeah, cows) off the tracks and away from the train. [![](https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/TRN_UP_pilot_Guss.jpg) ](https://www.trains.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/TRN_UP_pilot_Guss.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4877 "2025-06-30T02:14:02Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > My conductor friend, who’d spent decades in that job on the Boston & Maine RR and its successors, told me that sometimes when farmers had an old cow that wasn’t giving much if any milk any more, they’d open the fence by the tracks and chivvy the cow out there so they could collect damages when a train killed their cow. How very Faulknerian. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4878 "2025-06-30T02:16:43Z")
Maybe worth checking out.. on Snopes > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I’ve never seen a Diesel locomotive with a cow-catcher. ISTM they were a steam-locomotive thing. Cow-catchers were often made from old boiler tubes ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4879 "2025-06-30T14:32:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > There’s a reason that angled bit on the front of old locos was called a “cow catcher”. Evidently they’re really called “pilots”, and train aficianados think the term “cow catcher” is silly. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4880 "2025-06-30T14:58:34Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > and train aficianados think the term “cow catcher” is silly. Well, sure, because they never actually catch the cow. It’s barely “catch and release.” More like MOOOOOve over! > [@Superdude](#): > > The boys decided to crawl under it to avoid being late What I hate is railroads cause this. No, they don’t force people to crawl under trains. But when they block roads for literally hours, what do you expect is going to happen? People live there, they have to go places. But the railroad could care less. There is a main line that runs right between the Phoenix baseball stadium and convenient places to park. Too many times they just left the train blocking the street and sidewalk indefinitely. So now there is a pedestrian bridge. Before that, I don’t know what people did, but it probably involved illegal and dangerous crossing. > **[Street View of Chase Field · Google Maps](https://maps.app.goo.gl/WDrGoFzGfMoU3ost9)** > > 401 E Jefferson St, Phoenix, AZ 85004 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657.md?page=243) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657.md?page=245)