Re: Watch out for cows!

I was riding the Zephyr a few years ago. We were heading eastbound several hours late approaching Winnemucca, NV in deep twilight. I was in a lower-level sleeper near the front of the consist when there was a loud clattering/banging noise below and passing behind me. In a moment the engineer came on the radio and frantically asked the conductor who pulled the emergency brakes?
As we slowed to a stop the conductor responded that it wasn't him.
The long and the short of it was that a calf got separated from it's mother by the passing train. Frightened and blinded by the passing noise and engine lights, it made a dash toward "mom" through the dark space after the locomotive. Unfortunately, that took it under the train.
40 minutes later, after replacing half a dozen air hoses, we were on our way again, but not before the conductor commented to the engineer, "Mike, I hope you like bar-b-q because we got a whole lotta hamburger back here."
Rob