Lying not too far from the tracks were some old track parts, spikes, and old ties. One day when we were in our early to mid teens we found a wooden railroad tie still at its full length, so we decided to set it across both rails of the tracks to see what happened when a train hit it. We set it in place and waited... and waited... and then we heard the train whistle several miles down the track. Showtime!
The picture above shows the approximate location of this story. We ran a short distance and hide behind some bushes within site of the tracks (on the right side of the picture). The tension was building. The suspense was killing me. We gave no thought to the fact that this was extremely dangerous, we just wanted to see the timber explode. And we were not disappointed.
Just before the train hit it I lowered my head and closed my eyes. I heard the explosion of wood and soon small pieces of wood were raining down around us. The tie really had exploded into hundreds (or thousands) of pieces. After the train was gone we assessed the damage. There were a few pieces left of the timber, but most of it had been turned into toothpicks.
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