I once had a undesired emergency application on the grade up from El Monte to Alhamba, and came to rest in the middle of San Gabriel Blvd. at about 3 am, on a distant planet, far far away (the crossing in now in the "trench". And, at 3 am, I was blocking the only traffic on San Gabriel Blvd. a San Gabriel Police car.

The officer got out and "ordered" me to "move the train immediately" or "he would arrest me". When I go done "laughing my ass off", I told him that we had an emergency brake application and the train could not be moved, until the cause was determined or corrected (knuckle had broken). I then noted that arresting me would still not fix or move the train. He was young and on the late night shift, and maybe a "wee bit" too "badge heavy". So he got very agitated by my "failure to comply" and then called his supervisor, who was there on scene in about 2 minutes. He spoke to his officer, then he spoke to me. Then he directed his officer to take my brakeman, and the "knuckle" in his cruiser and find the problem (lucky brakeman....). His supervisor and I had a good laugh, and all was well with the world when my brakeman found the problem, replaced the knuckle, laced up the air, and we were finally able to move the train. It was a "learning experience" for a young officer.

In my second career, I worked with a lot of experienced and well trained LE folks on traffic and rail safety issues. And while LE training has improved on these sort of things quite a bit, there are still some of these kinds of incidents, usually based on poor training, or inexperience, and/or (very rarely in my experience) a case of excess "attitude".

Now we can hear more about how all cops and trains suck fron Nancy and her forty multiple peresonalities.