Brower didn't hear the train?
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MargiePax — 11 years ago(August 23, 2014 11:14 PM)
The Doppler Effect plays a role in how a train can seem to "sneak up on you."
Doppler effect is observed whenever the source of sound waves is moving with respect to an observer. I'm going to make a lame attempt to visually describe what is going on. And my number and letters I will be pulling out of my butt and just reflect relative amounts.
I've got 5 people. Person S is sitting in a noisy car. R and T hear the volume of the engine half of what S hears; Q and U hear the volume of the engine half as loud as R and T, and a quarter as loud S. Parentheses will represent the sound waves.
Q( ( ( R( ((S)) )T ) ) )U
now, suppose the noisy car starts to move toward Q, and R & T get out of the way.
Q( ( ( (((S)) ) ) ) ) )
The motion of the car causes the sound waves to compress in front of it, and lengthen behind it. Which is what causes that nnnnnnyyeeeeeeerrrr noise as the noise source passes by R. (Think: Sheldon Cooper dressed as the Doppler Effect at Penny's Halloween party.). Poor Q doesn't hear the approaching car and gets run over, because the movement of the car shortened the time it took for the sound wave warning, and splat.
So what happened to the other guys? T turned to U and said, "Look at that S car go!"
People think, how dumb can you be, not to hear the train coming up on you? My dad worked for the gas and electric company and they would be out by tracks sometimes, using power tools, possibly wearing ear plugs, then nnnnnnyyeeeeeeerrrr! A train goes by.
Can anyone name the movie reference? I changed my example names from ABCDE to QRSTU just so I could make the joke. -
steve-mason66 — 10 years ago(January 29, 2016 02:55 PM)
Very rarely if at all can a train 'sneak up on you' I used to hang around train tracks as a young lad, and you could hear a train coming long before it came into view because the track started making a noise. It's quite a loud and unique noise, and impossible not to hear.
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Public-Enemy-01 — 11 years ago(October 06, 2014 05:20 PM)
Trains seemed very loud and incredibly slow as well in film. Especially during bridge scene I almost laughed, the train was at jogging pace and with just one carriage it could have easily stopped I reckon. What train driver wouldn't try his hardest to not mow down a group of kids?
"I believe what ever doesn't kill you, simply makes youstranger"
The Joker -
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guppie2335 — 11 years ago(December 04, 2014 11:52 PM)
What people also don't understand is that you can be 5-10 feet off the tracks and the train can suck you in with a vacuum like suction. So he may have been picking the berries by the side of train and got sucked into the wind tunnel that happens when a train passes at high speeds. This could also explain the idea of his shoes flying off. The intense suction could have drawn him in and shot him out at a drastic force.
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TwoThousandOneMark — 11 years ago(December 06, 2014 03:15 AM)
A woman I worked said she & a friend nearly got hit by a freight during the 80's.
She described how the wind direction all but muffled any sound, pushing towards the train, away from them walking, erasing most warning.
It wasn't a railway crossing with horns & signals.
Having said that, I don't think she implied a sudden train dodge either like the movie lols. More to the point had they not looked around, in less than a minute they'd have been dead.
All in all, it is very probable to be killed by a train. If you go stand near a local railway crossing, esp an urban/suburban one, & see just how fast they're plowing through those in real time then realize that train speeds are regulated through populated zones encountering one out in rural/wilderness would be f'd up.
Like driving on a highway 120kph, & a train off to the side just cruises right on by that would be instant killshot. -
regexfan — 11 years ago(February 16, 2015 10:03 PM)
I know it's been quite a while since you asked the question, but I'm going to answer it anyway.
According to the book, the Brower kid's mom told the police her son went out (bringing with him a bucket) to pick blueberries and never came back. So that was what was on the news, and that was how the 4 main characters knew.
And then the kid got lost and he followed the track all the way (the reason why he got so far away) thinking it could lead him back home. He became disoriented when he realized he was still in the middle of nowhere, and now having lost interest in picking blueberries he threw his bucket away (this is the reason there was no bucket or blueberries anywhere near his dead body).
In the book, the 4 main characters discussed how the Brower kid had probably gotten so scared when the night arrived and had stick to the track, or even slept very near to or even on the track. He was alone, unprepared, so far away from home, and was probably in shock too, plus it was dark, so it's very logical that he didn't hear the train (or was to shock to move before the train hit him).
IN SHORT, he was not hit by the train when he was in normal mental state, picking blueberries and whistling (lol). He was hit by the train after he got lost, became disoriented and scared, most likely at night, and was probably sitting or sleeping on the track.
So there ya go! -
davcalla777 — 11 years ago(February 22, 2015 06:10 PM)
who knows.. gordie said the train knocked him out of his shoes, so we know that the train mustve whacked im good, but, its IMPOSSIBLE not to hear, or even feel a train coming, those things are so powerful and loud, a deaf man can feel the air and surroundings around him rumbling. outside of a suicide, or being frozen in fear
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rek16803 — 11 years ago(February 22, 2015 08:34 PM)
It happens all the time. two times just in Portland Oregon the past 4 months.
http://www.oregonlive.com/commuting/index.ssf/2015/02/amtrak_train_fatally_hits_man.html
http://www.oregonlive.com/weather/index.ssf/2014/10/man_killed_by_train_in_southea.html -
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serendipity-13 — 10 years ago(May 25, 2015 05:47 PM)
as a child, I used to have to cross a railway track on my way home from schoolnot at a crossing, just along the line. One day, walking home with my brothers, I was very cross for some reason and stomping along lost in my own angry world. I went to step across the first track and my brother pulled me back by grabbing my jacket.as I turned around to yell at him the train went whooshing past! Up until then, I had not seen or heard it. If not for my brother's quick thinking, I would have been smooshed on the front of that train!
Also, about the shoes coming off. W@hen a person dies, their body goes limp initially and that's when shoes fall off.you'll often see random shoes when there has been a bombing or other type of accident where people have been suddenly killed -
irishfl80 — 11 years ago(March 11, 2015 09:40 PM)
My father was an engineer for amtrak, and yes people got hit & killed all the time. Granted most of the time the people were drunk, but it happenes rather often to people not drunk.
If anything is a plothole in the story, it would be how did the engineer not know he hit someone. Trains will stop after they hit someone, not just keep going leaving the body to be discovered whenever. I suppose it's possible back in those days the engineer could get away with not paying attention. Maybe reading a newspaper or something. -
willydoe71 — 10 years ago(November 20, 2015 01:25 AM)
If anything is a plothole in the story, it would be how did the engineer not know he hit someone. Trains will stop after they hit someone, not just keep going leaving the body to be discovered whenever. I suppose it's possible back in those days the engineer could get away with not paying attention. Maybe reading a newspaper or something.
Well for starters, it could have been night time when he hit him. Also, back in those days, it wasn't too uncommon for train engineers to be drinking while on the job. My uncle used to be an engineer as well. They had to build an overpass over one of the tracks because back in those days, he and his buddies would be piss drunk and stop the trains across the road, blocking all traffic. -
wilft1 — 10 years ago(April 09, 2015 09:52 AM)
Ray Brower went to the Prometheus school of running away from things i.e. running in a straight line away from whats coming straight at you instead of running sideways away from it
People tend to look at you differently when you stuff a voodoo doll full of laxitives -
BingoFlip20943 — 10 years ago(May 24, 2015 08:44 PM)
Maybe this isn't how it was in the 50s, but trains can be extremely quiet, especially if they're running with the engine in back. I grew up near train tracks, and a friend and I once didn't hear a train until it was under us when we were climbing a chain link fence on a bridge. It was almost completely silent and scared the beep out of us.
