That was pretty interesting, although I’m sure they knew the the small or evenly spaced gaps would not work; trains wheels are connected two wheels on each side in assemblies that tend to keep them on the tracks. I worked for the railway only about five years, many years ago but came from a railroad family… you were taught to apply a differential load if you wanted to derail a car… if using timbers, place them at an angle. But if it’s more than a runaway unloaded car, good luck. The same place that had the coal car runaway had earlier had an entire train runaway ( it was later determined, due to the persistently steep grade, there was a point of no return where if you were above a certain speed you couldn’t stop ). The Engineer that had that runaway rode it out and stopped it just before the main line (rather than bailing, which I think others in his crew may have done) and thereafter had a permanent job being a pilot and instructor for that piece of track
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