Re: 463 pic In 08

William...your seagull/bovine post brought back an exciting memory from my youth.

I had just graduated from HS and was driving home from Newport,Mn., about 15 miles south of St. Paul...and was going home. To do so, I had to cross what my kid brothers and I called the "race track'. These were three sets of main line high speed tracks about 200 feet apart where all the streamliners passed en route to Pigs Eye yard, and then in to St. Paul. It was an incredible place to watch trains.

The road crossed the RR tracks and were well protected by a huge complex of crossing gate arms and flashing lights, etc. As I stopped I saw the bright SS cars of the Afternoon Twin Cities Zephyr flash buy going I guessed, about 60 MPH.

Then...all hell broke loose. The noise was a huge roar and the underside of each car erupted in sparks, and blue smoke.

I I backed up my car and headed via a side road towards the head end of the train. As I drove up the parallel side road to a short cut I knew where I could cross the tracks...I passed the engines. The beautiful Burlington E-5, A and B units. The A unit was covered in blood,and the pilot was bent up like a silver gum wrapper. I slowly drove buy and had to dodge a few pieces of bovine carcass, which I recognized as pieces of a Hereford cow.Thee cab crew was on the ground looking kind of stunned.

As I drove away, in the rear view mirror the blue smoke was still covering much of the train, and I saw some yellow flames where the sparks had started a few grass fires.

As the image in the rear view mirror faded from sight I gave thanks that I had not seen the impact. It must have been ugly.

To this day, I have wondered how the train remained on the rails. Perhaps it was the high speed of the impact that simply blew that cow to bits, and the train still stayed on the track.

That night, the news on the radio confirmed what I had seen, and the news said the train was traveling over 60 MPH.

Quite a sight, that I will never forget. (Back in the 1950's, TRAINS MAGAZINE used to publish what they called their annual "Speed Survey" and for years the afternoon Twin Cities Zephyr took the prize. At one section in Wisconsin/Illinois border, along the Mississippi, calculating distance and times from the published timetable, the Zephyr hit 117 MPH.
Having ridden that train many times....I used to sit in the Vista Dome, and expect that those E-5 were going to lift off of the rails, and climb into the sky. It was a helluva ride.)