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 Replies: 35 / Views: 23,824 |
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Valued Member
United States
318 Posts |
As loosely inspired by the "PLEASE DO NOT OPEN, extreamly graphic images inside" thread.
That brought me back to a wee little kid nearly 35 years ago. On a hike from a camping trip to nearby train tracks with my mom, we saw a train from way in the distance and put a few coins on the tracks. Idea being to smoosh them flat, like the pennies from those novelty commemorative penny smooshers. If you knew my mom, this was really unlike her as we hid in the bushes for the train to pass. lol Never did find the coins.
I remember I had visions of taking this to the next level and stacking a penny on top of a quarter, having a perfect copper oval imprinted into a larger perfect silver oval.
Anybody done this? How?!?! Scotch tape to hold them together? Bubble gum? The vibration must have knocked them to kingdom come, or they stuck to the train's wheels.
I don't even know where to start. I want to be a kid again!
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Pillar of the Community
Mexico
1304 Posts |
I did the same thing fifteen years ago...good times. I did, however, find some of my smashed coins. Who know where they are today. (no where nearby, that's for sure)
Anyone have pics of coins smashed by trains? I'd like to see some.
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Valued Member
United States
89 Posts |
What if you cause the train to derail  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
842 Posts |
I have a quarter that I put on the rails at the Pikes Peak cog train station (despite signs saying not too  ). It's cool and makes for good conversation, as well as bringing back good memories. I don't know if what I heard is true or not, but I was once told that the trains wheels can exert enough pressure to cause the coins to shoot off sideways from the track at speeds close to that of bullets. I can see that being plausible if the coin was placed in a perfect spot on the rail. Might be the reason why there are signs telling people not to put coins on the tracks! |
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Rest in Peace
United States
9104 Posts |
Quote:
What if you cause the train to derail Incredibly unlikely. Quote:
I was once told that the trains wheels can exert enough pressure to cause the coins to shoot off sideways from the track at speeds close to that of bullets. Doesn't make sense. If you exert pressure on the back of a tiddlywink (wheel on coin), it goes forward, not sideways. The fact we've never heard of someone being killed by such a bullet/coin says it prolly never happened. |
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Valued Member
United States
424 Posts |
So, my thought is that when the train smashes the coins...the heat caused from this makes the coins stick to the wheels for a bit, causing them to end up further down the tracks. Perhaps a little dab of super glue between the coins, and also to the track would help hold them in place to get your penny/quarter concoction. I think they don't want people putting cons on the tracks, because they don't crazies running up, getting whacked by a train. |
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Rest in Peace
United States
9104 Posts |
If you hit a coin with a sledgehammer, how much heat is generated? No way anything sticks to wheels, ever notice how shiny they are?
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
A bit of trivia:
The area of the contact patch of a locomotive wheel against the rail?
Varies, obviously, with the wheel diameter and the weight on the wheel, but typically,
about one square inch.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7096 Posts |
Next time I'm in the Pilbara I'll try this on a ratty penny. I'm sure one of them Iron ore trains will make a lasting impression on a coin  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1151 Posts |
I live in distance of a railroad track and me and a buddy go over every summer and do this.
I usually find them either on the side of the track or ahead of where I placed them.
And yes, they usually turn out to be, shiny, I guess the word would be.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1610 Posts |
Dang it, I've just been through my dad's collection (just for fun, not for stealing) and he had a squished $2 and 1ยข (Canadian), if I read this before he put it away, I would've taken pics of them.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1888 Posts |
When I was a kid I did this with pennies too many times to count.. enough so that it finally became boring because the only way to inject new interest into the activity was to try it with larger denominations. And a nickel was a lot of money to a kid back then. I grew up in the country with an active short line track 200 feet from our front door. Trains would roll by two or three times a week. Even the steel pennies would get well flattened. None ever came out shiny unless they were shiny to start with. I have no idea where any of that damaged mintage is now.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Quote:
What if you cause the train to derail Possible if the coin placed on the track was made of Steel, about a foot thick, a foot wide, hollow and contained dynomite. Quote:
Doesn't make sense. If you exert pressure on the back of a tiddlywink (wheel on coin), it goes forward, not sideways.
The fact we've never heard of someone being killed by such a bullet/coin says it prolly never happened. However, if someone was killed by such a projectile, no one could figure out how it was done or where it came from so the details of that murder might have been sort of kept secret. The trick on recovering a coin after a train has gone over it is to grab it after the first wheel goes over it. You have to stay there and reach in, inbetween wheels for your coin. Drill a hole in a coin, pull a piece of Stainless Steel wire through the hole, place the coin on a track and pull after the train has gone by. OR, place hundreds and hundreds of pennies on the track so at least one could be found. Or take a Arc Welders torch, portable generator along with you to the RR tracks and weld coins to the track.  |
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Rest in Peace
United States
1501 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10038 Posts |
I lived by the tracks when a kid and went through this phase of life. My friends and I also got to the point of trying to find new flattening ideas. Larger denominations up to a half dollar were used. Stacks of coins were used. The half dollar became flat and stayed on the tracks for the rest of the train to make into an almost paper thin splat. The stacked coins normally did vibrate off, but I never got an impression of one in the other as most would get multiple hits and end up flat anyway. As to a coin derailing a train - I has heard of this theory as a kid... but after we had been dumb enough to look for more things to flatten like the RR spikes that hold the tie plates down  These spikes just ended up making a slightly louder "click" than when the train went over a rail joint. They did not flatten hardly at all, except for the "lip" at the top of the head. I am thankful to this day there was no derailment b/c of this. How dumb we were! How much squash could a Sasquatch squash if a Sasquatch would squash squash? Download and read: Grading the graders Costly TPG ineptitude and No FG Kennedy halveshttps://ln5.sync.com/dl/7ca91bdd0/w...i3b-rbj9fir2 |
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Valued Member
United States
333 Posts |
Just put 10 pennies down and keep an eye out for them. I used to do it as a kid. You should be able to find nearly all of them because they really don't go very far.
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Replies: 35 / Views: 23,824 |
Posted 01/08/2012 01:17 am
