Most folks can point to an unusual experience or two that that they can be sure probably hasn't happened to anyone else. Off the top of my head, I can point to two hobby-related things I thought were pretty unusual, events that I can point to years from now and be sure that few have ever done the same thing. One of them is the fact that I can truthfully say I learned to operate 20-ton streetcars and 40-ton subway cars long before I ever got a driver's license, thanks to membership at the Shoreline Trolley Museum. How could I have made it so long without my own set of wheels? Easy. Living in New York City, there are buses and subways out the wazoo, and I've been able to roam as far north as Hew Haven and as far south as Philadelphia without much trouble.
Oh yeah, that tailgating thing....
Well, one fine day at the aforementioned museum a few years ago, I was at the controls of a pair of antique subway cars about to take a run up the mile-and-a-half line when I noticed a jogger going up the tracks. Nothing unusual about that--the museum's right-of-way is on public land and pedestrians aren't specifically forbidden to walk alongside the tracks. The trackage is not connected to any other railroads, so only trolleys (and the occasional subway car modified to take power from the overhead wire) travel over it. A few minutes later, I got clearance to head out on the line. Soon we caught up with the jogger, about 2/3 of the way to the end of the line, and I whistled to get his attention while he was still a few hundred feet ahead of the train. He glanced over his shoulder and kept going.
At this point, even though the right-of-way was originally double
tracked, the second track had been removed decades ago and the surrounding
weeds (the line crosses a salt marsh) conspired to narrow the available space
to the point that pedestrians would have to stand aside to let streetcars
pass. The 10-foot wide subway car I was operating was no exception to this
rule. Though it was obvious I was going to overtake him, he didn't move over.
Applying the brakes, I slowed the train to match his speed and proceeded
to tailgate him another 300 feet or so to the end of the line, following
about 15 feet behind him. Upon nearing the end of the line, he switched from
trackside to directly on the tracks, seemingly oblivious to the 161,000 or
so pounds of subway train still hot on his heels. I'm told that as he passed
the end of track, he looked back with an annoyed expression on his face.
Can you imagine that?
(Note: the guy was never in danger of getting run over. Had he so much as
stumbled, the emergency brakes would've stopped the train almost instantly,
being that we were traveling less than 10MPH at that point.)
After I made my return trip, I mentioned the incident to the museum's then-president, who is a big fan of the rapid transit cars, and likes nothing more than to take the fastest one and go flying up the line with it. His sentiment was something along the lines of "If it had been me, I'd have blown him into the weeds!" (Not the actual quote, but it's close, and this version is funnier). This made a mental picture so funny, that I had to draw a cartoon illustrating his feelings on the matter, which you may now see by clicking on the hapless soul pictured below.
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Yeah, the pic is kinda rough. It was a rush job done while the humor was still fresh in my mind. I still have the line-art version, and maybe one day I'll correct the technical errors and maybe even color it.
PS: The person expressing the aformentioned sentiments has indeed seen this picture, and he thought it was pretty funny too