(The following story by Bill Shea appeared on the Fort Dodge Messenger website on June 30, 2009.)
FORT DODGE, Iowa — People used to seeing grain hoppers and box cars on Fort Dodge railroad tracks may have taken a second look when they spotted bright yellow passenger cars rolling by late Monday afternoon.
A short passenger train made two trips between Fort Dodge and Moorland, but getting people from one town to the other wasn’t the goal.
The Union Pacific Railroad train was set up to drive home lessons about the need for drivers and pedestrians to be safe around the tracks.
During an onboard presentation, Don Heddinger, a Union Pacific conductor with 39 years of experience, summed up the safety message with a pair of catchy sayings.
Anyone in a vehicle approaching a railroad grade crossing needs to ”look, listen and live,” he said.
Those on foot who are tempted to go near the tracks or a railroad bridge must ”stay off, stay away and stay alive,” he added.
Those are the basic principles of the railroad safety program called Operation Lifesaver.
Six-year-old Autumn Bell, of Fort Dodge, found her first train ride to be an informative one.
”I learned not to cross the tracks when a train is coming,” she said.
A brief stop on the High Bridge over the Des Moines River was her favorite part of the trip.
Although Autumn Bell had fun and learned something, her train trip was really the result of her younger brother’s fascination with railroads. Erica Bell, her mother, said 3-year-old Kaden likes trains and wanted to go on Monday’s ride.
Erica Bell added that the ride was the first train trip for her and the children.
Ed Hughes, who lives at Friendship Haven in Fort Dodge, hadn’t been on a train since he rode one on the way home after being discharged from the Army in 1945.
Hughes said he felt the Operation Lifesaver lesson was ”very useful.”
”It’s a shame more people don’t listen to it,” he said.
Hughes said he can’t imagine why anyone would want to race in front of a train at a crossing.
”That thing is too doggone big,” he said.
The difference in size between a train and a car was emphasized Monday as part of the Operation Lifesaver presentation. Heddinger said the average train weighs 12 million pounds. The average car, he said, weighs 3,000 pounds.
When a train hits a car, it’s like a car hitting a soda can, he said.
Because of their size, trains can’t stop quickly, Heddinger added. He said a train with 100 grain hoppers, which is common in Iowa, can take a mile to stop.
In the United States, someone is hit by a train every two hours, according to statistics he presented. Last year, he said, 286 people were killed in grade crossing accidents. Another 458 people were killed while trespassing on tracks or railroad bridges.
Heddinger said people should always assume a train will be coming down the tracks.
Operation Lifesaver was started in 1972 by two Union Pacific employees in Idaho, according to Brenda Mainwaring, the railroad’s director of public affairs. She was on board for the Monday trips in Webster County.
Mainwaring said passenger trips have been part of the program almost since the beginning. She said putting people on the train gives them a different perspective on the hazards at grade crossings.
”It’s a much more compelling message that way,” she said.
The four passenger cars used Monday were made in the 1950s and 1960s, according to Mainwaring. A locomotive was hooked to each end of the string of cars. One of those locomotives was a yellow Union Pacific model like the ones seen every day in Fort Dodge.
The other locomotive was a red one with the name ”The Katy” printed on it in white. It was a rolling tribute to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, nicknamed ”The ”Katy,” which was absorbed by the Union Pacific in 1988. Mainwaring said the railroad has a handful of locomotives that ”pay homage to the historic railroads that have become part of the Union Pacific.”
Called Heritage Units, the remaining locomotives in that group honor the Missouri Pacific, Western Pacific, Chicago and North Western, Denver and Rio Grande, and Southern Pacific railroads.