On my way up Cascade Street, three boys were on bikes ahead of me. Suddenly, the bells for a railroad crossing ahead of all of us began ringing. They all sprinted ahead to beat the oncoming train. I would guess that the last one crossed the tracks only five seconds in front of the locomotive.

I once was in a train when it hit a car. The result? Four deaths. Did I feel anything? No. I looked at the locomotive afterward, and you couldn't even tell that it had hit anything. They did have to bring in a crew with torches to cut off part of the plow, but that was the extent of the repairs that were necessary.