Train Tracks

At age 5, Westley Polston outran the other kids at the playground. Today, at 12, he's a Junior Olympic gold medalist in the 400-meter race and working to defend his title as first in the state for the 55-meter, 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. Westley, a sixth-grader at Mount Royal Elementary/Middle School, is one of the current success stories of the Baltimore City Track & Field Club, which for more than 30 years has produced top-notch runners. Every year, about 150 kids ages 7 through 18 participate, improving their track-and-field skills through training four afternoons a week with some of the city's top coaches.

The Harford County Sheriff's Office is confident that when faced with the threat of an explosive device, it has the right man for the job. In this case, however, the right man is a dog: Elliot, a chocolate Labrador retriever. "A dog's nose is so far beyond a human's, it's hard to comprehend," said Deputy 1st Class John Seilback, a member of the sheriff's canine unit. "When you have pizza delivered, you smell pizza. A dog smells the dough, the sauce, the cheese, the delivery boy ... and scents wafting in from the street," Seilback said.

A NEW traffic light recently installed by SHA on Route 97 at the intersection with the off-ramp from Interstate 70 prompted James Walsh to complain. "That particular signal is probably needed 6 hours per day, 5 days per week," he said in a recent e-mail. "Instead, that traffic signal operates 24-7. It's particularly vexing for traffic turning from northbound Route 97 onto the ramp to westbound I-70; those drivers have to wait for a left-turn arrow. At 8, 9 or 10 p.m., I will often see two or three cars waiting for the signal to permit them to make that left turn.

MOSCOW - Two bombs exploded under a suburban commuter train filled with students on their way to school in southern Russia yesterday, killing at least four people and wounding 44 in what authorities said was probably a Chechen rebel attack. The blast was the latest in a series of explosions that have brought the war in Chechnya home to Russians. It left the area around the train tracks in the Stavropol region strewn with shredded notebooks, textbooks and body parts, witnesses said, and hospitals flooded with casualties, at least 12 of whom were critically wounded.

More than just propelling horse racing into a new spurt of popularity, Seabiscuit may trigger younger fans' fascination for the hardscrabble background of the story and the history of America's Great Depression. Earlier this year, WGBH Video released one of the most eloquent documentary treatments of that era: Riding the Rails, which whizzes by in an insight-packed 72 minutes. And it holds particular appeal to high-school viewers. Riding the Rails chronicles the teens of the '30s who rode freights to escape the hardship or the dreariness that hit their families after the economy collapsed.

Carroll County school officials cleared a bus driver yesterday of accusations by children that he drove their school bus across railroad tracks through flashing red warning lights Friday afternoon. But parents in New Windsor remained upset, because school officials, who acknowledge a train was in the area, didn't believe their children. There will be no further action involving the driver, 74-year-old Roland C. Strawsburg, who has an exemplary record in 30-plus years of driving, said James Doolan, the county schools supervisor of transportation.

Carroll County school officials yesterday cleared a bus driver of accusations by children that he drove their school bus across railroad tracks through flashing red warning lights Friday afternoon. But parents in New Windsor remained upset, because school officials, who acknowledge a train was in the area, didn't believe their children. There will be no further action involving the driver, 74-year-old Roland C. Strawsburg, who has an exemplary record in 30-plus years of driving, said James Doolan, the county schools supervisor of transportation.

BLOOMINGTON -- This town knows death -- usually by trucks. Proof is found in 18 faded white crosses at the foot of Cemetery Hill, each marking the fatal crash of a truck whose brakes failed. But today, this tight-knit community on the border of Garrett and Allegany counties and West Virginia is burying Eddie Lee Rogers, a 15-year-old who died in an unexpected way last Sunday when an out-of-control coal train smashed through his house just yards away from the tracks. "No one ever dreamed that the train would run off the track," says Alice Howard, Bloomington's historian and one of its oldest residents.

A Missouri man whose tractor-trailer rig was slammed by a freight train yesterday as he tried to turn the truck around on train tracks in Rosedale was in serious but stable condition last night at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, police said.Police said Steven Potter, 40, of St. Peters, Mo., crawled from his demolished rig and sought help after the accident at 9: 20 a.m. in an industrial park at Todds Lane and Pulaski Highway.The operator of the CSX Transportation train, Charles Moffett, 56, of Kingsville was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center after the accident, complaining of chest pains.