What was this person thinking.

More than meets the eye here. On the North camera view it sure looks like a female, after getting out and walking off the tracks she is looking at the train and gestures to the engineer with her hand towards the car. You can see her still standing under the street light just past the tracks as the flatbeds and gondola cars go by even as the train comes to a stop. Looks like she is holding her left foot in a way like injured. (not saying from this incident) Interested to hear more details.

I would concur that 'she' certainly appears to be a female. HW, who was it confirmed it was a 'male' Did the police apprehend someone?

I want a new car...for free. This'll do it!

I can sue the railroad and get my new car.

Cameras? What cameras? 

I stand by my comment that there more to this than fraud.

@Dan Kenny posted:

I stand by my comment that there more to this than fraud.

Messy divorce.....

the Ex calls her looking for his car.....

she says "I left it by Ashland Station, I think there's still a couple pieces of the tail lights on the corner......

The only obvious thing is this is deliberate, the car drives up and stops, and the person who gets out is not frantically running, they kind of lope away. When people stall on a train track and know a train is coming, they usually panic and run away.

I can see why people thought this might be a woman. Obviously as it exists here, even in full screen mode, it is not all that clear. The pants look like woman's capri pants or yoga pants, because it looks like they don't go all the way down the leg, but they could also be long men's basketball shorts . I think it is a man, the way the person moves to me looks like a guy, the long strides, and also what I can make out of the shape of the body (which given how unclear this is, is really just a guess). If it was a person committing insurance fraud, they wouldn't have gone away like that, they would have waited for the cops and given a statement that the car just died on the tracks, etc.  It could be someone who stole a car and left it there for the thrill of it, could be they stole it to get revenge on someone..or it could be someone paid them to 'steal' the car, and have it get into an 'accident'.  Be interesting to see if anyone comes forward to claim the car, hopefully it will be updated as they know more.

DNA will answer many of these questions.

CCC

Couldn’t this be considered an act of terrorism given the dense population and if there were hazardous materials being hauled? It definitely does look deliberate.

While we speculate, do the answers here need to be quite so misogynistic?

My thoughts were along the lines of RSjB18.  I was wondering if it could be someone who had it in for a member of the train crew.  All in all, sure seems deliberate and likely more of a reason than just wanting to watch the sparks fly.

I'm sure the authorities have found enough ID from the car...license plate, VIN, etc... to zero in on the owner/perpetrator/probable cause.  I tend to agree that it was a spiteful, pre-meditated act.  I hope this thread will have some closure on the matter eventually. 

Sounds like Ashland has quite an eventful crossing there at England and Railroad Avenues.  Google Earth views of the intersection (2012) and the thread videos don't seem to show a lot of changes to improve the situation...IMHO.  It's gotta be a butt-pucker crossing for train crews operating at speed on this mainline.     Derailments from worse collisions could be a major disaster to the commercial establishments and pedestrians/shoppers lining Railroad Ave., too.  I can imagine more draconian changes would be contentious, expensive, disruptive, ...and probably litigated...for years.  Lots of towns in a similar situation.  No easy solutions.

@rplst8 posted:

While we speculate, do the answers here need to be quite so misogynistic?

OK,,,,,,,,,just what the he** does THAT mean? No, I'm NOT going to waste my time finding a dictionary to look it up!

@Hot Water posted:

OK,,,,,,,,,just what the he** does THAT mean? No, I'm NOT going to waste my time finding a dictionary to look it up!

Google is your friend.

"I was driving home and realized I had forgotten my driver's license, so I stopped the car and started walking instead."

Years ago I was driving down a street at the limit, 30 mph, and suddenly a pickup that was stopped at the stop sign on the side street accelerated rapidly from the stop sign and braked right in front of me, causing me to T-bone the truck. The two young men in the pickup quickly got out (on the passenger side - I'd hit them on the their driver's side). Then immediately a sedan then came screeching around the corner, the two young men jumped in the back seat, and then the car sped away. I found out later it was a gang initiation ritual. The pickup was a stolen vehicle.

I thought of this when I saw the person inexplicably park the car on the track right in front of an oncoming train. This could be something similar going on.

@dkdkrd posted:

I'm sure the authorities have found enough ID from the car...license plate, VIN, etc... to zero in on the owner/perpetrator/probable cause.  I tend to agree that it was a spiteful, pre-meditated act.  I hope this thread will have some closure on the matter eventually.

Sounds like Ashland has quite an eventful crossing there at England and Railroad Avenues.  Google Earth views of the intersection (2012) and the thread videos don't seem to show a lot of changes to improve the situation...IMHO.  It's gotta be a butt-pucker crossing for train crews operating at speed on this mainline.     Derailments from worse collisions could be a major disaster to the commercial establishments and pedestrians/shoppers lining Railroad Ave., too.  I can imagine more draconian changes would be contentious, expensive, disruptive, ...and probably litigated...for years.  Lots of towns in a similar situation.  No easy solutions.

We've ridden the Autotrain 6 times back and forth to Fla. I was stunned the first time we rolled through town. And there's a College campus just north of the station too.

Bob

@rplst8 posted:

While we speculate, do the answers here need to be quite so misogynistic?

While reading this topic on my phone while taking a break, I was going to post a reply using sexist when I got home.  I like misogyny better.  There are a lot of guys here that obviously have had terrible relationships.  Me, I'm hoping for another 43 years.

As far as the topic, I think I will stick with the driver being drunk or high and definately not thinking straight.

@rplst8 posted:

Drunk?

My guess. Or drugs. Stupidity. Mental illness. With out the final Police Report no one will know!

I live a 20 minute drive West of Ashland.  An accumulation of local news is that it was considered deliberate.  They’re still looking for the driver that left the scene.  The fact that they haven’t identified the driver publicly yet supports the driver may not have been the car owner.

The driver walked away to the west of town.  That side of the tracks is a mile or two of residential and parks before you get to rural farmland. To get back to the developed side of town, you would have to circle back and cross the tracks.  The way the driver left the scene it’s possible he had a ride or another car to use nearby, or lives in the area.  The facts aren’t adding up to a bad mistake.

Ashland is the town that the RF&P created as a tourist destination back in the 19th century.  The college is in town because of the railroad convenience at the time the Methodists built it.  It’s part of the identity of town.  Several years ago there was a push to add a third line in hopes of adding high speed.  Best plan was to bypass the town.  Both the town and the suburbs impacted fought it.

CSX new solution to the problem was to sell the permanent land easement rights to the State for over $500 million and let the state solve the problem.  State is currently proposing a massive plan to add capacity for commuter trains from Richmond to Washington.  Goal is a commuter train per hour to help relieve I95 congestion that runs parallel to the line.

It’s an important line for CSX and Amtrak already. I enjoy stopping for a beer at the brew pub along the tracks on a nice day.  You usually see three to four trains pass per a beer.  Helps that the train store is right next to it.

Ashland and  LaGrange, KY are 2 of my favorites to watch.  I find it fascinating that the trains run right through the towns.

CAPPilot writes: “There are a lot of guys here that obviously have had terrible relationships.”

Ron - I respectfully disagree. You’re painting with a pretty broad brush here. Very few comments offered in this thread about which you can make such a generalized statement.

The driver was a 15 year old teenager. The police will never identify a minor.

Gary: Hope to see you out rail-fanning. 🚂

@Hot Water posted:

OK,,,,,,,,,just what the he** does THAT mean? No, I'm NOT going to waste my time finding a dictionary to look it up!

So that's where the last print dictionary is. 

So what does an age of 15 qualify for in getting behind the wheel in Virginia?  Now this sounds possibly like a teen vs. parent problem manifesting.

In Michigan, you can get a Learner's Permit at 15, but you're required to have a licensed driver in the car...who is neither incapacitated...nor in the trunk!

Not off to a good start for getting your permanent driver's license next year, pal!

And, no, daddy isn't going to get you a Hemmi Dodge Charger to replace that embarrassing old family sedan for which you were taking heat from your 'friends' at school!  Get a life!  Go to work!

------------

Autotrain route?  Seems like an appropriate nickname for this crossing/intersection!  Maybe Auto+Train Route.   

All right guys, can we stop it with the dictionary references and get back on topic.

From a lot of the comments here I'd not want many of you investigating any accidents I may be involved in!

Perhaps the driver thought the engineer would see the car on the tracks and just simply "stop" the train to avoid hitting it.

@Jerry Williams posted:

Perhaps the driver thought the engineer would see the car on the tracks and just simply "stop" the train to avoid hitting it.

Elsewhere on the Forum...  Why not?  It's possible!

@Dan Kenny posted:

From a lot of the comments here I'd not want many of you investigating any accidents I may be involved in!

Probably not likely...even if you had an accident. 

OTOH, after their successful creation/application of the "Affluenza" defense, ABA members would probably have their own speculative field day commenting on this video in their own 'forum'. 

Just in case the dictionary thread was started in reaction to my post - what I was saying was doing stupid "punk" things, like stealing/joyriding in cars, acts of vandalism, violence, etc. tend to be things done by young males. If it had been a female doing this then, they would be more likely to be doing it to get back at someone.

What was this person thinking? Part 2

Virtual Railfan - Ashland Virginia

Car drives around the gate. Frame - 0:38 432,718 views May 27, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mDEPPNtmMM

Hope to see you out rail-fanning: Gary 🚂

@dkdkrd posted:

Elsewhere on the Forum...  Why not?  It's possible!

It depends on the makeup of the train.  You ain't stopping a 150 car freight train in the distance provided in that video!  You can clearly hear the train braking for the whole sequence, but there's no way it's stopping before hitting the car!

The police caught the person and filed some misdemeanor charges. Not a lot of detail but this is the latest:

https://richmond.com/news/loca...70-57b445a19e91.html

Ken

@kanawha posted:

The police caught the person and filed some misdemeanor charges. Not a lot of detail but this is the latest:

https://richmond.com/news/loca...70-57b445a19e91.html

Ken

Can't see the story.....paywall blocked.

@Dan Kenny posted:

ainroomgaryOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

What was this person thinking? Part 2

Virtual Railfan - Ashland Virginia

Car drives around the gate. Frame - 0:38 432,718 views May 27, 2017

I researched Ashland train accidents after this thread started. Unfortunately this is a very common occurrence in this town. At one point there were two train car incidents within one 24 hour period.

add to this, the number of cars that wind up turning onto the tracks that don't get hit by trains......

On the topics of accidents, here is another gem:

@RSJB18 posted:

Can't see the story.....paywall blocked.

Disable javascript and you can read it. Not much info, except it WAS a woman, who was unlicensed in an uninsured car (which, of course, means the railroad will be footing the bills), and who the cops aren't doing anything more to than a slap on the wrist.

If you can't see the story because of the newspaper paywall, try this:

https://www.wric.com/news/loca...n-on-ashland-tracks/

Ken