The following is the original link to the page on
rense.com, followed by the unedited text for search
purposes.
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/
|