Here's a valuable tip: if you plan to derail a locomotive for the purpose of making an awesome YouTube video: Don't do it in Nebraska. The cops there are sourpusses.
Just look at what happened to young Mr. _______, a 17-year-old with a glimmer in his eye for social media fame. According to America On-Line, (a cool service that lets you read news stories and even electronic email on your computer with a modulator-demodulutor unit — let me know if you want a CD-ROM to install it; I got a buttload of them), the industrious entrepreneur is "accused of tampering with the components of a railway on April 21, causing a BNSF Railway train loaded with coal to derail. Investigators said the resulting damage to two locomotives and five cars totaled around $350,000."
After the derailment (which you can watch here) the boy called the cops to report the "accident,"
From the AOL report:
When they arrived and told the 17-year-old they did not yet know the cause of the crash, he replied: 'Obviously a switch was flipped the wrong way,' according to local reports.
Duh. In other words, not only were the cops mean, they were totally clueless about switches.
The lad is facing "two felony counts of criminal mischief for intentionally damaging or tampering with property."
Like I said, steer clear of Nebraska, where the cops will arrest you for looking cross-eyed at them.
Previously:
• Taking a trip on a private train of restored vintage rail cars
• The story of the train that broke through a building in Paris in 1895
