Pope Lick Monster, on the Railroad Trestle

Pretty interesting, but also pretty sad being that somebody two months ago lost their life for being on that trestle when a train came by. It's bad enough walking on railroad tracks, at least you can jump or move out of the way if you see or hear a train coming, but walking out on a trestle with nowhere to go and seeing a train coming towards you. I mean no matter what everybody says that the tracks are dead, not used, what ever, there's always the possibility. I guess people are thinking "Hey if a train comes I'll just run to the other end like they do in the movies, it can't be all that hard, if they can do it I sure can!"

The trestle along Taylorsville Road between Jeffersontown and Fisherville is rusty and LOOKS unused...I haven't SEEN a train on it in decades...according to these articles, a lot run through, maybe at night.  I am going to have to take a look on the roads around there.  I am not sure either of the two trestles I am familiar with is the one in question, for the one along Taylorsville Road has no road under it, nor does the one over Floyd's Fork creek.  I walked and road my bike a lot on the east side of Fisherville, but only once to any extent on the west side, to where those bourbon warehouses (huge buildings...gone) used to be in what is now that large county park that borders I-64,

my rule when out photographing: unless there is a 20' tall tree growing in the gauge, assume the line is live and a train is right around the bend.

The horror lead engines have caught on video (and crew continue to live with) of people getting run over on trestles is a bet some folks will make regardless of the number of signs or fences.

Paul

colorado hirailer posted:

The trestle along Taylorsville Road between Jeffersontown and Fisherville is rusty and LOOKS unused...I haven't SEEN a train on it in decades...according to these articles, a lot run through, maybe at night.  I am going to have to take a look on the roads around there.  I am not sure either of the two trestles I am familiar with is the one in question, for the one along Taylorsville Road has no road under it, nor does the one over Floyd's Fork creek.  I walked and road my bike a lot on the east side of Fisherville, but only once to any extent on the west side, to where those bourbon warehouses (huge buildings...gone) used to be in what is now that large county park that borders I-64,

Norfolk Southern runs almost 20 trains a day on that bridge.

Most bridges looked "unused" today because painting them is too expensive. It's not really the painting part that's expensive, it's removing the old paint in an environmentally friendly way that gets expensive. 

colorado hirailer posted:

  Google "Pope Lick Monster" and read about the people who have gotten killed falling off this trestle, or hit by trains, and the part goat monster that supposedly entices them out onto it. 

I checked it out and realized you really do learn something new every day. I'd never heard of it before, but then again I'm a skeptic by heart and don't put credit into such stories. That said, I do find them interesting in an odd way.

Sad part is a girl died very recently and her boyfriend (who probably got her to go there) survived by hanging onto the side of the bridge as the train that killed her went by.

Look at the deck of the trestle. It's no wonder how people get killed as there's no way you'd be able to run that far when the train showed up (which, I assume, isn't exactly creeping by when it shows up):

Years ago I remember fire barrels on that  trestle, if it is the one between J-Town and Fisherville.  Firebarrels  always had extensions out of the side of the trestle where you could duck into, at regular intervals, if a train came, but I see no firebarrels or extensions in the photo above.  My buddy still in the area said his dad told him that legend at least sixty years ago, when he was a little kid.