Long
Description of Sighting Report |
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.
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.
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.
Aerial View Paintsville, KY Railroad yard
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.
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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