Train Tracks

The sharp blasts of a train's whistle made time stand still for two volunteer firefighters trying to pull an injured man from a smashed car stuck on the railroad tracks in Lansdowne Sunday afternoon."

Roy Kirk is a train buff. So when he heard about Friday night's collision in Silver Spring, he readied his video camera and drove from his Reisterstown home to the scene."

Here's a tale that might have had a tragic ending if not for the efforts of two downtown workers forced to walk home from work after their car was buried in by the Blizzard of '96.About 9 p.m. on Jan. 10 -- when the metropolitan area was blanketed by nearly 2 feet of snow -- the man and woman were nearing Bolton Hill when they saw a high-sitting, four-wheel drive vehicle turn from Mount Royal Avenue onto the southbound light rail tracks that run parallel to...

"Downtown" Woodbine is looking up.A tiny brick building on Woodbine Road by the train tracks has been transformed from an ivy-covered derelict office with broken windows and sagging roof into a craft shop called Lil' Depot.Owned and operated by two sisters, Dotty Cook and Kerry Liptrap, the shop offers a cheerful step into the past of a crossroads that once was a thriving town."It's a busy area and it's a nice community," said Ms. Liptrap of Catonsville. "A lot of people have said they saw the place being fixed up and wanted to stop and see what it was."

The horns of light rail trains whizzing through North County neighborhoods will be quieted during a one-month test program in certain areas, as the Mass Transit Administration tries to address the noise concern of residents who live near train tracks."

DANIA, Fla. -- As the locomotive approached in the crisp morning light, Jackie Johnson told her sister, her brother and her cousin she wanted to "be with the angels."Moments later, the 6-year-old girl was struck and killed by the freight train.Dr. Ronald Wright, the Broward County medical examiner, ruled the death a suicide yesterday afternoon.Hers is considered the youngest suicide ever recorded in Broward County. Out of 2,616 suicides in Broward County since 1981, only 14 were under 15 years and none was younger than 12, the medical examiner said.

A truck carrying asphalt overturned yesterday, spilling it contents onto railroad tracks near Sykesville, state police said.The noon accident, near Route 97 and Hoods Mill Road, caused no delays in train service, a spokesman for CSX Transportation Inc. said.A police report was unavailable, and it was unknown whether the truck driver suffered injuries. State police could not provide the driver's name.Don Brannan, the owner and operator of Carroll County Cab, said he saw the truck as it lay on its side near the embankment just before the train tracks.

On a recent sultry afternoon, as heat waves danced above the train tracks dividing the eastern Baltimore County communities of Harewood Park and Oliver Beach, a northbound Amtrak Metroliner roared past with frightening speed.Minutes later, two Oliver Beach youths darted out from the thick wild rose and honeysuckle bushes along the tracks. With arms outstretched to balance themselves, they seemed to be floating in the shimmering heat as they jumped from rail to rail. They were heading for the Harewood Food Market for a soda.

There's something a bit out of the ordinary in the gardens behind the cozy Havre de Grace home of R. Madison "Mitch" Mitchell Jr. and his wife, Kit.The spacious raised flower beds are colorful and well-tended, in many ways not unlike the gardens in neighboring yards. But over near the Mitchells' pachysandra is a miniature burned-out house with a fire engine parked nearby. Not far from a dwarf Alberta spruce is a farm house and a barnyard. A general store, a water tower, a stone quarry and a coal tower are tucked here and there among the creeping juniper, Johnny jump-ups and marigolds.

Weeds cover the rails. Briars entangle the foot paths, and wild blackberries surround the deserted shacks used as a retreat and workplacea quarter-century ago.This 8-acre parcel on Coon Club Road used to be home to Carroll County Narrow Gauge Railroad. Now, woodland creatures claim undisputed possession of the territory.In the early 1950s, four model train buffs came to this spot to build a 9-inch-wide line to fit a scale-model steam locomotive.Thelocomotive was owned by Harry Grant, an engineer at an airplane manufacturer.