- PAINTSVILLE -- At exactly 2:47 a.m. on January 14, 2002, while working a
coal train enroute from Russell, Kentucky to Shelbiana, Kentucky, our
trailing unit and first two cars were severely damaged as we struck an
unknown floating or hovering object. I know it was 2:47 because my watch
froze, and to this day shows that time. Along with my watch the entire
electrical systems on both locomotives went haywire. Approaching a bend
near milepost 42 in an area referred to as the Wild Kingdom, for the many
different types of animals spotted there, my conductor and I saw lights
coming from around the way. This ordinarily means another train is coming
and will pass on the other track. The outlay of the area is this, the
river, #1 track, #2 tracks and a straight up mountainside, carved out
for the laying of these tracks. I killed our lights as not to blind the
oncoming crew. As we rounded the corner our onboard computer began to
flash in and out, speed recorder went nuts, and both locomotives died.
Alarm bells began to ring and that's when we saw the objects. Apparently
scanning the river for something. At least three objects had several "search"
lights trained there, the first object hovered about 10 to 12 feet above
the track.
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- It was metallic silver in color with
multiple colored lights near the bottom and in the middle. There were
no windows or openings of any kind that we could see. It was 18 to 20
feet in length and probably ten feet high. With both engines dead as we
rounded the corner we made little noise and the first object did not respond
in time, I estimate that we hit the object at 30 mph with 16,000 trailing
tons behind us. It clipped the top of our lead unit then skipped back
slicing a chunk out of our trailing unit and first two coal cars. The
other objects vanished.
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- Our emergency brakes had initiated due
to the loss of power and we stopped approximately a mile and a half to
two miles after impact. Our power restored after we were stopped and we
notified our dispatcher, located in Jacksonville, Florida of what had happened.
We were told to inspect the cars to see if they'd hold the rail and try
to limp into milepost cmg 60 which used to be the Paintsville yard which
is no longer in full operation. We checked everything out and the cab of
the rear locomotive was demolished and smoking, the second two cars looked
as if they had been hit with a giant hammer, but looked like they'd hold
the rail.
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- Aerial View Paintsville, KY Railroad
yard
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- We pulled into Paintsville yard at approximately
5:15 am. The huge overhead lights lining the yard were noticeably dark
and the only lights came from what we assumed were railroad officials
vehicles parked near the end of the track. We pulled to a stop and began
unloading our grips off the wounded train. We could hear what sounded
like an army of workers immediately tending to our train. Vehicle doors
slamming, guys running by in weird outfits and lights glaring from all
directions, the one thing missing was railroad officials.
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- A guy named Ferguson shook my hand and
asked me to follow him into the old yard office. We did, once inside they,
and by they I mean I have no idea who these people were, began to ask
us hundreds of questions, they then told us for our own protection we'd
be medically tested before we could leave. I asked repeatedly to talk
to my road foreman or trainmaster and not only were these requests denied
but they confiscated my conductor's cellular phone. Hours later we were
led outside the old yard office and the strange things continued to happen,
the 2 locomotives and two cars were removed from the rest of the train
we had brought in and my only guess was parked 4 tracks over under a huge
tent like structure buzzing with activity. We were lead off the property
and told, due to national security, our silence on this matter would be
appreciated.
- We were then put in a railroad vehicle
and taken to Martin, Kentucky were we went through questioning again with
railroad officials and were then drug tested. After all of this we were
sent on to Shelbiana, where we took rest for 8 hours and worked another
train back to Russell. Working back we passed by Paintsville, no sign
of the engines, cars, tent, people, nothing. Thanks to Peter Davenport
NUFORC http://www.nuforc.org/
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