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UFO
Intelligence Summary
 Date: Tues, 7 Jan 2015 From: francis ridge <franridge@nicap.org> Subject: UFOs & Trains Distribution: CE, A-Team |
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Updated: 16 Jan 2015
My interest in trains and UFOs stems from at least four things: 1) I investigated the L&N train incident in 1973.In case you are not aware, the E-M record or UFO E-M "Rap Sheet" is very compelling. Dr. Richard Haines lists over 3,000 sightings from aircraft, but lists over (by now) Fifty-Six Aircraft Pilot Sightings Involving Electromagnetic Effects. Mark Rodeghier lists 441 cases in his "UFO Reports
Involving Vehicle Interference". Rodeghier is the
Scientific Director and President of the J. Allen
Hynek Center for UFO Studies, and states that for
quite some time, no diesel engines had been affected
whatsoever, but only those operating by internal
combustion. For example, a UFO passed over two
tractors in Forli, Italy, on November 14, 1954, one tractor
with a diesel engine, the other with an internal
combustion engine. The engine of the diesel tractor
continued to operate, but the other tractor's engine
stopped and could not be started until the UFO had
vanished. There are other cases, particularly in the
United States, where diesel trucks' engines were not
affected by a UFO, but their headlights or radios
ceased to function. Since at least 1974, though, this
dichotomy has not remained intact. On March 21st of that year, a
diesel truck in Spain was totally disabled in the
presence of a UFO. This case and others that probably
exist are perhaps another indication that the UFO
phenomenon varies with time.
Some very interesting scientific information was obtained as a result of my investigation of the Mt. Vernon, Indiana, L&N train case in 1973. Not only had the train been shut down by the UFO that was following it, but the RR Signalling Block System detected its approach and departure. There are three electrical circuits that are made with the rails themselves on each track at the crossing. An island circuit (the bit of track in the roadway itself) and the two approaches (on either side of the crossing).The approaches range from a couple hundred feet long to a couple thousand feet, based on the track speed limit. Federal law requires they provide at least 20 seconds of warning for motorists before the train touches the edge of the road. All the circuits are separated by insulated rail joints in most cases. According to my source, many people believe a train completes an electrical circuit, and thus turns on the lights. But the truth is actually the opposite. He explained that it's more like a DC (direct current) circuit, in which a relay is constantly energized by a battery and held up by electromagnetic forces. When a train enters the approach, its wheels actually short-out that circuit, and the electricity doesn't make it to the relay at the road. The relay loses energy and "drops," which causes a set of contacts to touch, activating the signal lights through a series of relays. The reason it is set up this way is to provide fail-safe operation. If there is a problem anywhere in the track circuit, which could range from a broken wire or rail, to something as simple as snow or heavy rain causing too much of a draw-to-ground on the circuit at the crossing, will automatically turn on, and stay on until the problem is fixed. It doesn't do that to annoy people or cause traffic back-ups it does that to protect you and provide warning that something is wrong. Newer technology uses motion detectors and predictors. My source said they can shut off the crossing if the train stops before the crossing, and can provide a constant warning time no matter the speed of the train. If the train is going fast, it will turn the crossing on when the train is farther from the crossing, or much closer if the train is going slow. If you ever see a train crossing activated with no train around or other emergency such as a car stuck on the tracks, they urge you to call the phone number located on either the light mast or signal cabinet (it will be on a little white or blue rectangle) and report it. The dispatch center will want to know a seven-digit "crossing ID" number, as well as the road name and city. They will then send a crew to check it out. In the L&N incident in 1973 (see full report below *) the UFO's force field must have short-circuited the system causing the RR signals to activate (just as a train would) when the UFO approached their train from the rear, and work in reverse when the UFO moved away. This not only would have activated the crossing signals if they had not already done so themselves, but it also gave them what they called a "red board". Near and alongside the track there are color-coded lights, much like our traffic signals, which warn them of another train approaching on the same track. And if that wasn't enough, the UFO force field must have caused one of the rear diesel units to overheat, shutting down the train. And just like other UFO anomalies, when the object had gone away, everything returned to normal. Even before my direct involvement in this incident investigation I had been aware of another famous train case that had occurred fifteen years earlier between Wasco & Kirkland, Indiana (near Indianapolis) on October 3, 1958. Four UFOs followed and passed over this train but did not shut it down. While doing some MADAR research recently (See madar/ufois/apd4-madar-ufois.htm) I discovered two other cases that I wasn't aware of. BOTH were in the midwest region! One was in Illinois, the other in Kentucky. This called for further study. In the process I found five more cases. And more are coming in each week. In March of 1985 the MUFON UFO Journal had published an article by a colleague of mine, Jim McCampbell entitled, UFOs: More Engine Effects. Some of that article pertinent to diesels verses conventional engines can be found at the end of this paper. The following represents the complete up-to-date listing of train cases as per this date: |
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Intelligence Summary as follows from folder http://www.nicap.org/trains/:
April 15, 1897; Perry Springs, Missouri 9:00 p.m. A passenger train on the Wabash line,
going toward Quincy, was followed by a low-flying
object for 15 min between Perry Springs and Hersman.
All the passengers saw the craft, which had a red
and white light. After Hersman it flew ahead of the
train and disappeared rapidly, although the train
was then running at 65 km/h. (Magonia #20, 190)
http://www.nicap.org/18970415southdakota_dir.htmApril 15, 1897; Howard-Artesian, South Dakota Nightfall. A flying object coming closer and
closer to the ground followed a train, as reported
by the engineer, Joe Wright (Magonia #19, FSR 66,4)
http://www.nicap.org/540428australia_dir.htm April 28, 1954; 45 mi W of Geelong, Victoria, Australia 6:30 AM. (doc says 7:20 AM) Two men, Mr. A.E. (Ted) Smith, 26, , train engineer, and Mr. Colin Beacon, 23, train fireman, reported that an object described as a gigantic hazy dark blue object, estimated at 1200-1500' in diameter, no windows or doors visible, round, made screaming noise, swooped down at locomotive and suddenly swerved up, hovered overhead, careened around the sky, then rose up out of sight. Smith reported that the object came within 350' of them. (Source: Bill Chalker, The Oz Files, p. 78; Richard Hall/Rob Swiatek). http://www.nicap.org/540910quarouble_dir.htm Sept.10, 1954; Quarouble, France A metal worker, Marius Dewilde, age 34, came out of his house when his dog was barking and saw a dark object sitting on the railroad tracks. He then observed two dwarfs walking toward it. When he tried to stop them, he found himself paralyzed as a strong orange beam of light that was projected at him. The beings were under 1 meter (3.3 feet) tall, bulky, and wore dark diving suits. No faces or arms were visible. Imprints were made by an object, that an engineer estimated must have weighed 30 tons. French police and the French Air Force investigated the case. (Sources: Le Parisien, September 13, 1954; Aime Michel, Flying Saucers and the Straight Line Mystery, p. 44; Jacques Vallee, Passport to Magonia, p. 209). http://www.nicap.org/551004russia_dir.htm Oct. 4, 1955. Across Transcaucasus region, SW
of Baku, USSR (BBU)
7:10 p.m. Was Top Secret. Senator Richard B.
Russell, Jr. (D-GA), then chairman of the Armed
Services Committee, was on a Soviet train when he
spotted a disc-shaped craft taking off near the
tracks. Senator Russell "saw the first flying disc
ascend and pass over the train,” and went “rushing
in to get Mr Efron (Ruben Efron, his interpreter)
and Col. Hathaway (Col. E. U. Hathaway, his aide)
to see it,” the report said. “Col. Hathaway
stated that he got to the window with the Senator
in time to see the first (UFO), while Mr. Efron
said that he got only a short glimpse of the
first. However, all three saw the second
disc and all agreed that they saw the same round,
disc-shaped craft…as the first.” A fourth witness
was unidentified. The Air Force Intelligence
report says Russell and his two traveling
companions spotted the UFO’s on October 4, 1955
while traveling by rail across Russia’s
Transcaucasus region. “One disc ascended
almost vertically, at a relatively slow speed,
with its outer surface revolving slowly to the
right, to an altitude of about 6000 feet, where
its speed then increased sharply as it headed
north,” the report states. “The second
flying disc was seen performing the same actions
about one minute later. The take-off area
was about 1-2 miles south of the rail line…” The
Air Force report was written by Lieut. Col. Thomas
Ryan, who interviewed Senator Russell’s companions
in Prague, Czechoslovakia, on October 13, after
they arrived there from Russia shortly after the
sighting. (Maccabee, FOIA files, Swords)
http://www.nicap.org/581003wasco_dir.htm Oct. 3, 1958; Central Indiana
3:10 a.m. A Monon Railroad freight train
was proceeding through Clinton County when a
formation of four odd white lights crossed
ahead of the train. The UFOs turned and
traversed the full length of the train, front
to back (about a half mile) observed by the
entire crew. After passing the rear of the
train, the objects swung east, turned back and
followed the train. The bright glow concealed
the exact shape of the UFOs, but they appeared
flattened and some times flew on edge.
Operating part of the time in-line abreast
with coordinated motions, the objects followed
the train until the conductor shone a bright
light on them. Immediately, the UFOs sped
away, but returned quickly and continued to
pace the train. Total time of observation:
about 1 hour 10 minutes. Finally the UFOs
moved away to the northeast and disappeared.
The coordinated maneuvers in formation,
reaction to a bright beam of light, and pacing
of the train, all suggest some form of
intelligence. (FATE, Feb 1959, NICAP UFOE,
page 9) [Fate cover mentions New Air Force
Report. This was Project Blue Book Special
Report 14]
http://www.nicap.org/670420argentina_dir.htm April 20, 1967;
near Estacion Casalegno, Santa Fe,
Argentina
03:30 a.m. The
conductor of a train, Enrique R.
Galimberti and another crewmember, saw
what appeared to be bright
multi-colored lights about 120 meters
away from the tracks. Thinking it was
a fire Galimberti stopped the train
and both armed with fire extinguishers
attempted to approach the area. As
they approached the area they saw what
appeared to be multicolored lights
moving around in a circular motion,
both then observed behind the light
what appeared to be a square metallic
object over 3 meters in width and
about the same in height. It had
several lighted windows around its
edge. At the front it had what
appeared to be a "rotating wheel"¯
that emitted multicolored flashes of
light. Around the object several short
humanoid figures were walking about.
These were wearing silvery gray shiny
uniforms, appeared to be bareheaded
and appeared to be carrying what
resembled a "rifle"¯ or weapon-type
object on their shoulders. At one
point the witnesses used the train
horn in an effort to elicit any
reaction from the figures but there
was none. Another railway employee,
Salvador Pomidoro reported seeing the
square metallic object on the ground
in the same location about 15 minutes
before. HC addendum (Source: S. von
Wurmb, "Hoy"¯ Asuncion Paraguay) Type:
C
October 17, 1967; Edmonton, Canada 1:50 AM. The
object was sighted one mile N of
Elnora by several of the train's
crew. Elnora is about 35 miles SE of
Red Deer. Engineer William (Ben)
Benwick): "If I'd had a sling-shot,
I could have knocked it down". It
was an unidentified flying object
that Benwick and other crew members
of the CNR 443-North speed freight
say followed them early that Friday
morning. Mr. Benwick, of Calgary,
said the object flew alongside the
train at a distance of about 100
yards. On one occasion, he said it
dived toward the train and came much
closer. At first he had been
reluctant to report the incident to
a newspaper. "I thought everybody
would take me for a nut," he said.
He told The Journal that the train
was going at about 50 mph at the
time and that the UFO followed
along. When they stopped at Alix to
drop off a car, it stopped also and
"Just hung there." It then followed
the train all the way into Mirror.
Benwick described the UFO as being a
little more than the length of a
boxcar in diameter, about 40 feet.
It had colored lights around the rim
which flashed red, green, orange,
and yellow. Its top cone was black,
and underneath there was a circle of
glowing light, about 10 feet in
diameter. "When we got to Mirror, I
told the operator there about it,
and he asked what I had been
drinking. I told him: 'There it is,
right in front of you,' and he just
said: 'My God'." The CNR operator at
Mirror, Larry Mazure, later told Mr.
Benwick that the UFO hovered about
15 miles east of Mirror for two
hours more before it left. The same
night, Mrs. David Soppit, who lives
about five miles west of Mirror,
reported to The Journal that she had
heard a humming or whirring noise,
and when she looked out the window
she saw an extremely fast moving
light in the sky. The following
night, the engineer of another
freight train, Hubert Schmidt, also
reported the sighting of a UFO.
Oct. 25 1967; Wentworth Valley, Nova Scotia 3:15 PM.
Raymond Putnam, rear brakeman on
"The Cabot" with Canadian National
Railways, was travelling between
Halifax and Moncton. He opened the
upper half of the door on the left
side of the last car, to get a
breath of air and glanced up the
side of the train by Wentworth
Station and saw over the trees a
UFO. At first he though it was
something falling from the sky
because there was green vapor
billowing from the top of it that he
later thought might be the exhaust
end of the object when it was in
flight. The UFO was tracking
alongside the train at treetop
level, negating Putnam's first
impression that it was falling. The
brakeman tried to watch it but at
this point it was giving off such a
terrific light or radiation that
although it was daylight he had
trouble looking directly at it. He
put his hands up to cover his face
and peered through his fingers,
first with one eye, then the other.
When he looked away, he had
difficulty believing what he was
seeing and would look again to
reassure himself that he was not
imagining it. Fascinated, Putnam
continued to watch the UFO as it
tagged along beside the train and
sometimes just behind it, but still
off to the side. Sometimes it would
swoop upwards to the tops of the
mountains a bit away from the train
then would come back to it as the
train clacked through more moderate
terrain. As it drifted away it
seemed to bank, like an aeroplane,
"at a 45-degree angle with its
rear-top end to the left and later
rolled on to a quarter turn so the
flat sides were up and down."¯
Suddenly a jet dove down from a high
altitude and converged on the
object, coming up on it from behind
and directly toward the "exhaust
end"¯ of the UFO. The object leveled
out and a short thin exhaust issued
from behind it. Strangely now the
object began to elongate turning
into a cigar shape, then a cigar
shaped cloud, then a long cloud. The
cloud/UFO accelerated away to the
west and to the left of the sun with
the jet in hot pursuit. Two other
witnesses. 35 mins. Medical effects.
Evening. Police officer saw object over Mt. Morris that appeared to project its orange glow in a beam toward the ground and moved with occasional stops. "Seemed to follow (Burlington Northern) RR tracks", Hoak said. Sheriff's deputies also reported seeing the object in the sky in W. Ogle County. (News clipping)utnam continued to watch the UFO as it tagged along beside the train and sometimes just behind it, but still off to the side. Sometimes it would swoop upwards to the tops of the mountains a bit away from the train then would come back to it as the train clacked through more moderate terrain. As it drifted away it seemed to bank, like an aeroplane, "at a 45-degree angle with its rear-top end to the left and later rolled on to a quarter turn so the flat sides were up and down."¯ Suddenly a jet dove down from a high altitude and converged on the object, coming up on it from behind and directly toward the "exhaust end"¯ of the UFO. The object leveled out and a short thin exhaust issued from behind it. Strangely now the object began to elongate turning into a cigar shape, then a cigar shaped cloud, then a long cloud. The cloud/UFO accelerated away to the west and to the left of the sun with the jet in hot pursuit. Two other witnesses. 35 mins. Medical effects. (MUFON's Nova Scotia Director, Steve MacLean, Don Ledger) [See detaied report linked above] Oct. 20, 1973; Mt. Vernon, Indiana
6:50 a.m. The primary witness was a conductor
on a L&N train that had an encounter with a
UFO. Mt. Vernon, is a little town 15 miles west of
the city of Evansville. They had passed through
Mt. Vernon and were headed east nearing the Lamont
crossing, which is about 2-miles west of the
outskirts of Evansville. A nocturnal light
incident had preceded this close encounter. When
they neared Caborn (6-7 miles east of Mt. Vernon),
the conductor told the rear conductors by intercom
that they had seen a real bright light behind
them. When they got near St. Phillips, the rear
conductor reported that there now was a train
following them, on the same track, and the RR
blocking system showed something approaching them.
As they approached a steep hill at the Lamont
Crossing, one of the diesel engine units
overheated and the train was immobilized. When the
object behind the train backed away, the blocking
system showed the object retreating. The diesel
unit was now restarted and the train, loaded down
with coal, made it up the hill and on into
Evansville. See full report. (UFO Filter Center,
FI Francis Ridge, MUFON SSD).
http://www.nicap.org/771021fostoria_dir.htm October 21, 1977; 3-1/2 mi N of Fostoria, Ohio
3:20 AM. The engineer by the name of Howard was
sitting in his locomotive cab when several box
cars had been cut loose and were parked to the S
of the switch track to a warehouse. The rest of
the cars were being moved into position within the
warehouse. He was facing S and noticed what looked
to be a shooting star to the W which curved down
out of the NW. The light came down in the field
toward Route 23 between him and a church. Slowly,
at about the speed of a walking man, it came
toward him across the field. It was approximately
16 feet off the ground and stopped on the other
side of the tracks between 4 and 5 five box car
lengths away - 180 to 270 feet. He picked up his
radio and called out to his conductor who was
about 7 or 8 car lengths down the track,
"Donald...come up to the engine." Donald replied
by radio and asked what was happening. Howard
answered, "Hey, we got a g- d UFO up here." By
this time the UFO had moved to within two car
lengths of the track. The object was "birthday
cake" or disk shaped, about 90 feet in diameter
and 45 feet high. It was brightly lit, with banks
of 9 vertical "tubes" separated by a dark void
space that reflected no light. Short horizontal
tubes ran over the top and bottom of these voids.
The bottom of the disk could be seen; it appeared
like ceramic and was "the color of a common kind
of knife sharpening stone...gray with a trace of
lavender." No windows, ladders, antenna, or
markings of any sort were observed. There was no
sound associated with the disk. The disk was
slightly tilted and rotating counter-clockwise.
Both Howard and Donald used their railroad stop
watches twice to time the speed of rotation. The
speed was 9 rpm. The object glowed yellow. Blue,
electric like energy arcs ran around the disk in a
clockwise direction. As the arc touched the tubes,
the tubes lit up. When the center of the tubes
were touched, the ends lit up. When the ends of
the tubes were touched by the arcs, the centers
lit up. At one point the tower operator in
Fostoria, hearing radio conversation between the
three men, called and asked, "Hey, Howard, you got
a UFO out there?" Howard replied, "Yes, Merv, we
got a UFO up here. He's damn close." Merv then
asked, "Do you want the cops up there?" The reply
was, "Nol They can't drive up to where we're at.
And if they do get here, they'll probably shoot at
it. It Isn't hurting anybody. We're playing games
with it." Howard turned on his train cab headlight
for a two count and then turned It off. The object
lit up very bright for a similar period of time
and then dimmed down. He turned his light up twice
and then turned It off again. The object reacted
in-kind and then dimmed down. Testing his engine,
a General Motors Model 3900, he increased the
output to 1500 amps. The engine worked. The object
did not respond. The walkie-talkies worked, as did
the base radio on the train. After about 22
minutes the object started spinning faster and
faster and got as bright as it had earlier when it
responded to Howard's head light signals.
Suddenly, without a sound, it took off up and to
the NW until it looked like a yellow star. 22
mins. (MORA)
http://www.nicap.org/830310ventilla_dir.htm A diesel train of 14 cars was stalled by a huge UFO. First seen as an enormous, blinding cloud of light over the city, it then flew toward the train changing color from bright white to glowing orange. Seventy passengers on board were awakened and screamed in terror. A yellow ray of light struck the locomotive and stalled the engine. Engineer Sixto Churaz said that "I tried to start up the engine, but it was dead. Fifteen minutes later the engine suddenly came to life again as the object began to move away from the-train." The locomotive had just been through an overhaul and was found to be in perfect condition. Experts from the University of Qruro, railroad officials, and local police confirmed that a UFO had paralyzed the train and that it was not a mechanical breakdown. On three previous nights, nearby villagers being harassed by UFOs tried to frighten them off with gunfire. This episode introduces the extreme challenging element of the engine starting by itself as the UFO departed, a circumstance that has been reported on 27 other occasions for spark-ignited engines." http://www.nicap.org/8502XXrussia_dir.htm February, 1985; Soviet Union 2:35 AM. A freight train consisting of 70 empty
cars and a locomotive was followed to the city of
Kostomuksha through Petrozavodsk and Suoyarvi.
The train, piloted by the conductor, Orlov, and his
mate, Mironov, passed the station of Essoila, when
suddenly, Orlov noticed some strange object behind
the trees moving parallel with the train. The object
let out a ray of light toward the ground and then
drew it in. Mironov could not speak for a moment as
he saw the ball cross the railway and start moving
30-50 meters ahead of the train. Orlov tried to stop
the engine and slammed on the brakes to avoid
collision with the bright ball, but the train would
not stop. The men felt as if hypnotized and stared
at the mysterious object, a regular geometrical form
of about four meters in diameter that moved silently
above the surface as if drifting. When the train was
approaching the Novye Peski station, Orlov switched
on his portable radio and contacted a woman on duty
who went out to meet the approaching train and she
was surprised to see the shining ball followed by
the vibrating object looking like an upturned basin,
and then the train appeared, moving at about 60 km
per hour. It seemed that the ball might hit the
station, but right before the switch, the ball
suddenly separated from the diesel locomotive and
passed around the building, but the train would not
stop and passed right by. The conductor and the mate
mention only the ball because they could not see the
object resembling an upturned basin from the cab. As
soon as the ball passed the switch it immediately
rushed to the train. When it moved off the train,
its speed reduced at least by half. The diesel
locomotive twitched heavily, and the men inside of
the cab hit against the windshield. However, the
locomotive increased its speed as soon as the
shining ball approached the train again. The train
managed to stop only near the Zastava station and
the ball disappeared behind the forest. The crew had
to wait for a train coming from the opposite
direction of the city of Petrozavodsk. The conductor
got out of the cab to examine the wheels and as soon
as he walked around the locomotive he felt some
strange force press him against the machine. He
could not move, but when he could the man could
hardly reached the cab. As soon as he reached the
cab, the train started off as if it was waiting for
the man to take the seat. The train kept on moving
for some time until the shining ball disappeared
behind the forest. Those involved in the incident
experienced a strong nervous shock. Automatic
recorders of the locomotive and other official
documents prove the reliability of the strange
incident. The shining ball was noticed earlier at
the Kutizhma station even before it came across the
train #1702. 1 hour 20 mins)he train over 50
kilometers.
http://www.nicap.org/20020114pointsville_dir.htmhttp://www.nicap.org/9608XXaustralia_dir.htm August 1996; Hay
Point, Queensland, Australia
3:00 AM. A
cigar-shaped craft dropped a cloud of cobweb-like
material on a Queensland railway terminus. The
incident began when a 12-man work gang, loading
coal at the Hay Point facility, downed tools to
stare up at a mist-shrouded cigar shaped craft
floating above them. As they watched, a cloud of
cobweb-like material fell from the UFO. All the
equipment immediately malfunctioned and the coal
train lost its compressed air. One of the workers,
Gary, said: "Near the middle of the cigar was a
bubble-like protrusion with rectangular
observation windows. I saw shadows standing in the
viewports, looking down at the facility.¯ The
craft had no wings. At its rear was a bank of what
could have been jets. A dull hum came from the
UFO---and when it passed directly above us, the
radio went wild. Everyone started shouting at
once. The next we knew, the craft dropped sheets
of cobweb-like substance. When they tried to touch
the stuff it turned into a watery liquid. After a
minute or so, the thing flew away. The train still
had no compressed air and they had to recharge it
before work could go on." HC addendum Source: John
Pinkney, "Australia's Strangest Mysteries, #
2" Type: A
January 14, 2002; Paintsville, Kentucky 2:47 AM. While working a coal train en route from Russell Kentucky to Shelbiana Kentucky, a locomotive trailing unit and the first two cars were severely damaged as they struck an unknown floating or hovering object. The entire electrical systems on both locomotives "went haywire." (MUFON 61825) |
| Jim McCampbell: The notably higher efficiency of diesel engines over gasoline engines is achieved by using a higher compression ration. The compression ratio in gasoline engines is limited to about 7 or or 8 to 1 to avoid explosive pre-ignition of the fuel-air mixture. Ratios of 14 to 1, however, are possible with diesels because they compress only air. A metered amount of fuel under high pressure is sprayed into the cylinder at the critical time. With the air temperature in the cylinder at about 500 degrees F, the fuel is immediately ignited so spark plugs are not required. When reliable supplies of natural gas are available, such as in petroleum fields and along gas pipelines, it can be used as a fuel in stationary engines, Older types of these engines compressed a mixture of gas and air but were limited to low compression ratios typical of gasoline, engines. This problem was circumvented by designs that utilized very lean mixtures of gas and air, yielding compression ratios that were comparable to diesels. Ignition in them was produced by a pilot injection of fuel oil supplying only about 5% of the BTUs. Even that small amount of refined oil can represent a significant logistics problem and expense, so in later developments, manufacturers introduced models that replaced the diesel oil injectors with spark plugs! These engines, known as "high-compression, spark-ignited engines" are produced in great variety by several manufacturers in the range of about I500 to 4500 horsepower, They are "....the ideal choice for compression stations on gas pipelines. Because of the higher pressure of gases in the spark gap, these engines require much more powerful electrical systems in accordance with Paschen's Law. Secondary circuits operate at about 25,000 volts. So they would be uniquely sensitive to interference by any source of ionization in the atmosphere that would reduce the breakdown potential and permit shorting the high-voltage surges to ground rather than allowing delivery to the spark plugs. While there are many variation in design of the electrical systems, they have breaker points. 14 Consequently, collapse of an arc across the points could cause this type of diesel to self-start in complete analogy to automobile engines. It is hoped that complete descriptions may eventually become available for both the engine in the Bolivian train (Case 6 [our case 7]) and the one in the Kuwait pumping station (Case 8). See also: This intelligence summary is subject to update. |
| COMMENTS: At 06:35 PM 1/7/2015, Barry wrote: Fran, Barry, That's a hard one to answer. I'm sure UFOs have been observed near RR tracks as well as roads. My interest here is in the seemingly one-time interest by UFOs in trains and the difficulty at times for UFOs to disrupt diesels, including trains. Fran ====== Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2015 15:13:47 +0000 I’ve been scanning a large number
of 3 x 5 cards prepared by Richard Hall (and others)
perhaps 50 years ago. I came across the
attached file only yesterday and realized it belongs
in your nascent train file. The card is in
Dick’s handwriting. Of course, I’ll forward
any other such accounts I encounter; I’ll have to go
back through files I’ve already scanned (1947-53) to
see if any other train cases exist. Rob Swiatek Thanks, Rob, This case precedes the list and
becomes Case No. 1. Fran ======
--Rob Swiatek |