# What can I run over with a train? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 18, 2005, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-run-over-with-a-train/331609 "2005-11-18T05:05:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-run-over-with-a-train/331609/1 "2005-11-18T05:05:08Z")
I am in kind of a unique position at the moment. I am going to college in Grinnell, and one of the fun facs about Grinnell is that a train track bisects the (two block) campus. The train (which carries corn syrup and hydrochloric acid, as far as I can tell), goes through three or four times a day, less than 100 feet from my dorm. If you don’t time things right, you can get caught behind the train and not be able to get to class on time or get to dinner before the rush. Anyway, in my sculpture class, we were talking about Corneilia Parker, who uses silver plate objects, like forks and pitchers and musical insturments, that have been run over with a steamroller in some of her work. Obviously, I don’t have access to a steam roller to squish things with, but I do have a train. I’m not particularly worried about derailing it, as I would only smash fairly small objects. It only goes about 10 miles an hour, so I’m unlikely to get smashed myself. I know that coins are easily flattened, but what about a fork? A bottlecap? A key? Suggestions are welcome, as are stories about things getting run over by trains. Everyone loves destruction stories. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-run-over-with-a-train/331609/2 "2005-11-18T05:17:22Z")
Not to be the wet blanket, but what you propose carries some risk. With several dozen tons pressing down on just a few square inches, the forces generated have the capacity to launch such objects placed on the tracks with the velocity of a rifle bullet. It’s not hugely likely, but is it worth it? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-run-over-with-a-train/331609/3 "2005-11-18T05:26:55Z")
I have a story about this type of thing. My father and his best friend used to put things on the tracks close to his parents store. They were only about ten years old at the time. They used to put all the normal stuff (coins, toys etc.) on the tracks for the train to squish. One day, my father’s best friend had the idea to put a series of rocks on the tracks. The rocks were the ones used to lay the railroad tracks and they weren’t all that big. They placed them on the track and waited for a while. No trains came so they went home. That night a train came, hit the rocks, and derailed. It damaged the back of two businesses. No one was killed although my father remembers talk of injuries. They never got caught. My father thinks of that as one of his biggest secrets and guilty regrets to this day. Don’t put anything larger than coins on the tracks. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-run-over-with-a-train/331609/4 "2005-11-18T05:34:08Z")
Not to mention the fact that IIRC, (from the guest speaker who was a railroad worker and came to talk to my class about railroad safety and laws, since the town was a railroad town) it’s illegal to put things on the train tracks. Here’s a Snopes [article](http://www.snopes.com/science/train.htm) backing up what **Q.E.D.** said. I wouldn’t put anything on the tracks at all. See if you can rent one of those large rollers for your project, or find another way to squash things more safely. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-run-over-with-a-train/331609/5 "2005-11-18T09:09:56Z")
A metal slinky. (if it’s not illegal or dangerous.) ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-run-over-with-a-train/331609/6 "2005-11-18T12:14:59Z")
[SDMB Staff Report](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mtrackpenny.html) > [@](#): > > I called a few railroad track construction, maintenance and repair companies (these places are thrilled when girls call) and asked specifically if a penny on the railroad track could cause a train derailment. Vern, Lee and Brad all told me absolutely not. According to Lee, a train engine weighs over ten tons and very small objects won’t cause a train to run off the track. A very large boulder, cow or car–maybe. Most derailments are caused by breaks or fissures in the rail or wheel defects. A few are caused by human error–a long, heavy train isn’t easy to handle, and an inexperienced engineer going too fast around a curve or applying the brakes improperly (there’s quite an art to it) can cause a wreck. A very few derailments are caused by vandalism or sabotage, usually in the form of seriously damaging the tracks, removing or loosening sections of rail, etc. Small stuff _usually_ won’t derail the train, but you’d still be a prize arsehole for trying it. Not saying you _are_ said arsehole, because you’re not going to try it, are you? No. Stay away from live railroad tracks unless you have the appropriate clearance and training. Laypeople can get in trouble easily. These places aren’t like roads. Rail crew also don’t take kindly to people doing this stuff. You wouldn’t take kindly to punk kids putting things in front of your car, either. Thr guys in the locomotive have the added worry that you could be a suicide - a terrible thing for an engineer. Also, especially if the train is under acceleration, that penny or whatever could indeed fly out with great speed and force. Please don’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-run-over-with-a-train/331609/7 "2005-11-18T12:31:04Z")
Ditto. I’m all for forbidden fun (hence, my obsession with mercury) but when other lives are at stake, just give up that thought and find something else to do. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-run-over-with-a-train/331609/8 "2005-11-18T13:04:56Z")
- - -A train locomotive weights a lot more than ten tons; the weight of the average diesel locomotives used in the US is somewhere around **150 to 175 tons**. While putting things on train tracks is illegal (in the US, in this post-9/11 Patriot Act era we live in) and it is also dangerous (because particulary-hard objects can be ejected at high speeds) but even at that–I would be willing to bet large sums of money that _nothing_ that will fit in your closed fist is big enough and strong enough to derail a train locomotive. The main reasons I have been told for train derailments are track damage (fire or flooding) and hign winds that blow over empty cars (but not locomotives). By the by–I do have a penny somewhere that I found along some railroad tracks. I don’t really know what happened to it, but I have my suspicions. It is crushed into an oval. The “tails” side is still quite recognizable, while the “heads” side is totally, completely ironed smooth. ~ ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-run-over-with-a-train/331609/9 "2005-11-18T13:09:42Z")
> [@DougC](#): > > - > - -A train locomotive weights a lot more than ten tons; the weight of the average diesel locomotives used in the US is somewhere around **150 to 175 tons**. Yes, thanks for picking up that error. Ten tons would be an individual wheel loading for a very light locomotive. This, however, is usually expressed in terms of axle loads (two wheels), and twenty-five tons is considered lightweight. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-run-over-with-a-train/331609/10 "2005-11-18T13:26:35Z")
The other day the train I was on hit what seemed to be a pretty large tree that fell across the tracks. limbs went flying everywhere as we were going around 80 mph at that section. I don’t know what part of the tree we actually hit but in the end it was train 1, tree 0. ---
**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:** [November 18, 2005, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-run-over-with-a-train/331609/11 "2005-11-18T13:40:05Z")
You could make conceptial art and use the train to squash theoretical money: contact the railroad, give them your credit card number and tell them you’d like to pay for 10 cents worth of railroad time: one wheel at one place for one moment (10 cents seems right, since the contact area of a railroad wheel on the rail is the same surface area as an American dime). When you get the credit card bill, you frame it and turn it in to the teacher. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2005, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-run-over-with-a-train/331609/12 "2005-11-18T14:32:37Z")
Closing thread on subject that is most likely illegal and most certainly dangerous.