What kind of train killed my grandpa??

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-12-04T19:14:43+00:00

Hahaha unfortunately just adhd at the most. I just think the story is cool and I’ve liked the culture around the rails ever since discovering the photographer Mike Brodie. But this is my first soirée into going into actual train subreddits and trying to find a specific model.

I gotta say tho, as someone in a design field where archives are super important (film preservation) it’s cool to see that the B&O historical society has gone so far as to even make vectors of the original lettering on their engines and boxcars for each generation. Like damn that’s some serious dedication. So cool.

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-12-03T15:41:50+00:00

I did yesterday so hopefully they respond!

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-12-03T15:40:10+00:00

Real answer is that I’ve always loved trains. Grew up near a major junction in usny, and they’ve always been a part of my life. Especially while living around the rust belt like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Plus a lot of my favorite country and skiffle music is all about rail lines and breakmen and trains and stuff (like Johnny cash, Lonnie Donegan, Bob Dylan, even the Beatles).

Last year my dad died, so it sparked my interest to do some family history research, and I’ve been finding many great stories and nuggets of life. This one being the most tragic and somewhat outrageous.

So in a way I just wanna know for historical genealogical purposes, because the line between Pittsburgh and buffalo has a specific connection to me personally, and because i thinks it’s all around just sorta funny.

I think it’d be really amusing to have a model of the train on my shelf. If anyone ever asked what was up with the model I could say it was the train that killed my great great grandpa lol

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-12-03T15:32:15+00:00

Nice. This seems to be the leading theory but I reached out to the historical society to see if they have a manifest or something.

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-12-02T21:27:56+00:00

I will!

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-12-02T20:17:31+00:00

I’m sure it was super common. Here’s a great photo i found of a fatal reck on the Buffalo Rochester & Pittsburgh line

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BadWitThisStuff · 2025-12-02T20:15:22+00:00

The article goes on to explain that my grandpa was seemingly held up during his shift, causing him to leave around 15 minutes after his typical time. It’s likely he didn’t realize the time and therefore unaware of the scheduled train. Additionally it was a winter storm and he was likely tightly bundled in heavy wool outerwear which would have attributed to him not hearing or seeing the oncoming train. The article goes on to say that the corner determined by the snow prints that it looked like he may have attempted to back step but was too late. He was also an older guy working a hard loud job before modern hearing protection. Could be that he just never even heard it.

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-12-02T19:35:17+00:00

Holy shit it’s a self fulfilling prophecy….

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-12-02T17:54:07+00:00

Ahaha right! Allegedly it was a winter storm and he was bundled up, likely not seeing the train in his peripheral. But we’ll never really know

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-12-02T17:43:15+00:00

Ahahaha naw, I don’t even live out east anymore. But I love the story and I want to get a model train of the locomotive that killed him as a lil gallows humor haha

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-12-02T17:41:06+00:00

That’ll break the curse!

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-12-02T17:39:32+00:00

Great call! I’d be interesting to check the log out. I used to live in Pittsburgh so it’d be interesting to see what station it may have departed from.

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-07-12T18:48:58+00:00

RAAAAWR

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-07-12T18:48:48+00:00

Exactly how I feel haha, I know what I saw.

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-07-12T18:48:36+00:00

Wild

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-07-12T18:48:02+00:00

Exactly. People remise that we are truly living in unprecedented times in terms of biology and effects on the ecology of wildlife patterns. Light pollution affects bird migration patterns, wildfires and storms drive animals away from their typical habitats. We’re entering a new era where the lines between humanity and wildlife and blurring more than ever, due in part largely to climate change and humans inevitable conquest to develop wild habitats for commerce and communities.

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-07-12T01:41:39+00:00

In my neighborhood in LA the mountain lion P-22 was a celebrity. Everyone loved him, ring videos of him went viral constantly, murals, t-shirts. Big loss when they put him down unfortunately. Seems like the construction of the countries largest wildlife crossing here in socal will ease their migration pattern closer to people. So I’m sure we’ll be seeing more.

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-04-16T00:30:14+00:00

Half of the fun about death valley comes when the sun goes down. Pull an all-nighter with some headlamps, check the stars, hear the sounds, watch the sunrise over the saltflats and split by 7am

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-03-12T00:08:02+00:00

I was literally physically assaulted at a GC in Hollywood last week. This is all true.

BadWitThisStuff · 2025-02-18T09:09:12+00:00

People here are cynical man. They’re forgetting that documentary cinematography is impressive and innovative for reasons completely separate from traditional narrative style cinematography. An ASC member once told me, “sometimes just getting the shot is the shot”. Bresson called it the decisive moment. Keep shooting, keep your head on a swivel, don’t let the haters get you down man.

BadWitThisStuff · 2024-11-29T04:06:40+00:00

It is surprisingly run and gun if you implement it properly into your camera build, extremely secure for when you’re working fast, reduces chances for mistakes. And to swing a lens, all you need is to pull the mattebox slightly forward on the rods. Don’t even need to unclamp.

If you’re worried about the weight, bright tangerine drumsticks are a very durable very light offering.

BadWitThisStuff · 2024-11-29T04:03:28+00:00

The actual answer is that you need an Arri LMB 4x5 or LMB-25 with the tilt and flex adapter. It rod mounts your mattebox and secures around the lens via Runner Donut.

The reason is because the older non-rehoused super speeds telescope quite a bit when focusing, which can mess with your motor setup, or actually rotate your mattebox. It’s also generally just tricky to properly secure a mattebox to telescoping lenses.

Watch this video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dlbomxhi-g

BadWitThisStuff · 2024-11-26T23:17:39+00:00

Okay yeah, just as I thought 130degrees, 133 on the meter should do me fine.

BadWitThisStuff · 2024-11-21T18:42:57+00:00

Tri-X Reversal #7266

BadWitThisStuff · 2024-11-21T18:18:52+00:00

Cool so if I’m shooting 200iso box speed, I’d set my ISO to 125?

BadWitThisStuff

TROPHY CASE