XD Good stories guys! Another one from me:
December 19, 2002: Conrailfan was switching the Cliff Side (East Side) of Summit Yard. He usually switched this side because the Cliff Side was and still is the only part of the yard with a drill track. His switcher of the choice on this day was A&SE U28B 1808. It was snowing, so whenever possible, the switchman was in the cab warming up (we Alabamians don't typically dress very well for winter weather). So Oliver and that day's switchman were in the cab, they get a call from the yard tower telling them to clear the main for a northbound freight (would've been MF-767 in those days, we didn't swap over to the current system until 2004). They're already clear, and they're about to make another switching move, so the switchman throws the switch off the yard ladder and on to the drill track, then sprints back to the cab (the crews liked 1808 because she had an insulated cab and a very good heater. Very toasty in winter months). Now while the drill track was useful, it was also very dangerous, it was roughly three feet away from the cliff to the right, the mainline was to the left, and the tracks ended on a ledge. So conrailfan enters the drill track, and about halfway in he gets a call from his girlfriend. I have no idea what the hell they were talking about but it must've been pretty darn good because conrailfan quit paying even a lick of attention to what he was doing. Suddenly, he gets snapped back into reality by both the yard tower and the switchman shouting his name. He looks up and feels the bottom drop out of 1808. The 1808 and its occupants went over the cliff. Luckily the next car derailed and prevented the rest of the train from going over the cliff, I'm not sure if he realizes this but that little ballast hopper probably saved his life. So they go over the cliff. They free fall for over 400 ft before the 1808 hits a ledge. The engine landed on the corner of the roof on the engineers side. Oliver ended up cut up (broken glass from the windows) and got a concussion. The switchman was worse off. He got thrown across the cab, smashed a window with his head, resulting in both cuts and a concussion, and then smashed into one of the cab walls, breaking his right arm and dislocating a hip. Oliver, dazed, cuts the engine and fuel pump to keep the unit from exploding, then radios in to tell the yard tower they're alive. Then they hear a loud cracking noise. They look over and realize that the force of their landing caused the ledge to begin to break away, as they saw a crack already opening up about two feet away from the cliff. So there's a cut up and concussed Oliver, and an immobilized switchman, and they have roughly thirty seconds to escape 1808's mangled up cab. So Oliver grabs the switchman and climb his way over to the conductor's side door. Surprise! It's jammed by the crash. So Oliver begins trying to beat the door open, dropping the injured switchman in the process. He finally busts it open, crawls down to grab the switchman and comes back up to find the door shut again (stupid gravity). The switchman shows some muster and knocks it open with his good arm, and with two seconds to spare, they make it across the crack. Then the ledge breaks off sending 1808 crashing to her doom. Both of them watched her fall while seeing double or triple. Conveniently for us, she landed in a scrap yard. Oliver and the switchman were stranded on the two foot wide ledge for four hours (too bad you didn't crash with a girl Oliver) before rescued by helicopters and a brave group of men who went down to them by rope to help. They were in the hospital until December 23. After the incident, the switchman went threw conductor training and was reassigned to mainline trains out of Oak Mountain (at least he gets to say hi to his friends at Summit when they pass by) and I started up Oliver in the corporate side of the A&SE, simply because he'd had to dang many near-death experiences on the railroad at this point.
Afterwards, the derailment left on the ledge was cleaned up, and a concrete wall was put up around the cliff sides of the drill track. And ever since then, a sign has been on the end of the wall: "Oliver once drove a train off this cliff. He landed on a ledge and lived, but that ledge ain't there anymore, I don't think you'll be that lucky. Don't be that guy, stay on the tracks."