01-25-2009, 01:27 PM
Russ Bellinis Wrote:I'm not sure but in my experience with working on refrigeration equipment on the U.P. railroad at least, I don't think a person could get through to the dispatcher to let them know about something like that.
Sorry - I must have formulated that clumsily. I just meant that train dispatch was informed - probably by the police, since the natural thing to do in case of an accident where it is necessary to secure the scene to prevent further damage is to call the police emergency number. And the police emergency center have the numbers to people like train dispatch, power company on-call, road service, the phone companies etc.
Not that the post car driver would have called dispatch directly - he probably would not have had the phone number for them on his cell phone.
wgrider Wrote:I bet the driver of the truck was wide eyed. :mrgreen:
Yup, I also have a feeling that he probably got out of the car pretty fast
doctorwayne Wrote:Stein, I'm pretty sure that the USPS still ships mail on the rails, although most, if not all, is via piggyback.
Probably. Mail isn't being transported on local commuter trains around here any more though. I remember the local trains delivering a few sacks of mail and packages in the early 1970s or so, but not these days.
Most local stations aren't manned any more, anyways. We get our train tickets from vending machines (that take cash or ATM cards), and renew our electronic commuter subscription cards by swiping em across a reader at the station. Not much need for a local agent any more. By all means - it is reasonably efficient and cost effective.
But I still miss spending 5-10 minutes chatting with the station agent in his office in the morning, while waiting for my train to trip the buzzer on the local control panel as it entered the next block up the line. Must be at least - mmm - 12-13 years or so since those days. How time flies.
Smile,
Stein