As railroader myself, I've been following the saga of the runaway/unmanned CSX train in Ohio with some interest. My first impression is that some train crew definitely screwed up in not properly securing their train by applying the necessary number of handbrakes before leaving the train unattended. You can bet you ass that both the CSX and the Federal Railroad Administration while be investigating this incident VERY thoroughly and some people are likely to get their nuts dragged over hot coals. That the train crew responsible will serve some sort of suspension is virtually a foregone conclusion.
That being said, I've also heard numerous online reports that a police officer from somewhere in Ohio was actually shooting at the train to try and stop it. Has anyone else heard this? Real smart. To his credit, some of the reports I have read say he claims to have been trying to shoot the Emergency Fuel Cutoff switch on the side on the locomotive, but I'm not sure I'm buying it. First off, that switch presents a target a couple of inches in diameter at most, compounded by the fact that it was moving laterally at probably 20-30 miles an hour. How good of a shot does Officer Rambo think he is? Secondly, the switch must be depressed for a few seconds to function, simply striking it with a bullet would have probably just rendered it useless and ineffective. I have heard other reports that he was shooting at the fuel tank with the hope of causing the locomotive to run out of fuel. Wow, another ingenious idea. How long do you think it would have taken all of the diesel to leak from a couple of .40 caliber holes in the 3,000 gallon fuel tank of an SD40-2 locomotive? Yeah, that's what I thought, too. Duh. In the end, this guy was probably lucky that his shots didn't ricochet off of the steel (locomotives are built remarkably tough) of the locomotive and strike him in the head, although I have to wonder how serious such an injury would have really been to him. If this guy knew enough about trains to be shooting at them, he should have known to either shoot at the main air reservoirs or try to shoot the air hoses in between the cars with a shotgun or something. If you can rupture a charged air brake system the train will automatically go into an emergency brake application and come to a stop. I doubt that this cop had much knowledge about trains and I hope he gets at least a light reprimand along with some retraining for what at this point I can only consider a negligent discharge of his weapon.