If you've read my other posts you'll soon find out how frustrating detectors can be on the railroad. One time we got hit by a detector that said we had dragging equipment 18 cars back. I wouldn't have minded, but our train happened to be on a very steep hill. So steep, that I had to hold on to the cars as I went back to keep myself from falling about 150 feet through sage brush almost straight down to a big thing of mud. I started back, making my way to that stupid car. About halfway there I got brave and thought it would be faster to just walk. No sooner had I let go of a car that I tripped and fell down the hill into the mud. (It was snowing, and 2am). My engineer had seen it happen and laughed at me on the radio. So I walked in the mud until i could see the 18th car, and then I started to climb up the hill, grabbing sagebrush to pull myself up, in knee high snow. I was thinking to myself that there better be something wrong with this car or i'm going to freak. Well, I got up the the car, and upon inspecting it thoroughly, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. I was disappointed, but relieved that I didn't have to deal with any problems.

Now I had the problem of getting back to the unit without taking all day. The engineer said I could walk between the two tracks and that he would tell me if a train was coming so I could get out of the way. I got on the other side of my train and started to walk between the two tracks. Keep in mind that if a train came while I was walking, it would pass within 3 feet of my train.

When I was about 200 feet away from the head end of my train, I saw another train bearing down on me coming in the opposite direction. Knowing I didn't have time to run up there, I had to lay down on my belly right next to my train and wait for the other train to go by. It was going pretty fast and loud, and I was scared, but it went by and I finished walking up the the front of my train.