Posted by Andreas, a resident of the Ventura neighborhood, on Oct 11, 2012 at 3:33 pm

I live on Park Blvd. The trains go past my backyard. In 14 years, I've found two railroad spikes in my yard. These sprung loose from the railroad ties, flew over, and landed in my yard. They travelled easily 20 yards and over a 12-14 foot hedge. The spikes are big and heavy. Yes, if they had hit someone, it would have killed them.

Posted by Jan H., a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 11, 2012 at 5:28 pm

My son is a rail fan, and he said it sounded like the part was something from the housing of a fan on the engine. However, such a loss would have caused the train to stop somewhere farther down the tracks.

Posted by musical, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Oct 11, 2012 at 6:51 pm

An hour ago on the original thread, Railroader had interesting input about a failed dynamic brake fan on UP 9989.

Web Link

Maybe the editor will concatenate this.

Posted by Bill, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Oct 11, 2012 at 10:05 pm

I told my Aunt Tesse to not take the keys without telling me when she did her midnight run.

Posted by Old Palo Alto, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 12, 2012 at 12:06 am

Here is the train part that hit the truck. Not the blades were broken off and the bolts that hold them on are in tact.

Web Link

Posted by musical, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Oct 12, 2012 at 7:31 am

Excellent find, Old Palo Alto. Whether 1250 or 2000 rpm, that thing would really go flying, as seen in the YouTube link on other thread.

Posted by Jake, a resident of another community, on Oct 12, 2012 at 9:20 am

"old Palo Alto"

Way to go! That looks like it could be 99.9% the part.

Posted by humm, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Oct 12, 2012 at 12:04 pm

If so, should we conclude people take higher risk to live or be around rail roads?

Posted by musical, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Oct 12, 2012 at 12:15 pm

I don't have enough zeros in my basket to quantify the risk increment.

Posted by Trench it. A solid wall would contain thrown objects., a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 12, 2012 at 1:17 pm

One more good reason to trench the train. Good grief!