that is very awesome!

“Am I dead?” Hollopeter asked, according to the man who saved his life. “Am I dead?”

OK. Wow. That’s amazing. What a decision to have to make.

Knowing a train was likely to pull into the station at any moment

So if there wasn’t a train immediately in sight, was there no way that incoming trains could be halted or the power to the lines switched off, instead of just diving on top of the guy?

I mean, it’s fantastic that he took the decision to act swiftly and try and save him, but it must have been very traumatic for his two young daughters to think their Dad had just been killed under a train.

that is cool./

Wow. That guy should get some type of hero grant from the government and never have to work another day in his life.

whoa

i guess he was really confident about the amount of clearance underneath the train.

amazing

Yes, especially with his big giant balls of steel getting in the way!

xpost

I think about that all the time!! “If there’s no side clearance, could I get in the middle?” I guess at least on the IRT you’re okay!

If that was the Simpsons, guy would go “whew” and rest leg by standing on rail.

I also think abt this quite a lot because of a Roald Dahl short story where some kid gets tied to a train track by bullies and wiggles his head enough to clear some gravel between the track, so the train goes over him. (I forget how he gets free but I guess that’s a secondary issue)

in chicago they have steel plates attached to the front of the trains to act as snow plows. clearance is roughly 6“.

So in Chicago my meager tit-allottment will finally be a plus.

Not to mention the sad asslessness.

So if there wasn’t a train immediately in sight, was there no way that incoming trains could be halted or the power to the lines switched off, instead of just diving on top of the guy?

You can actually see the next station up at this stop, so he might’ve seen it sitting there getting passengers. It’s unclear from the story but it obviously happened within a very quick amount of time so presumably the lights were visible from the next station up. And with that amount of time, no, I would not believe they’d be able to stop the oncoming train—someone would have to go find a station manager or a subway cop, which is next to impossible on the upper reaches of the 1, for starters...

Fergal, that was probably the first short story I’ve ever loved! It’s called ‘The Swan’, and features what was a regular theme in Dahl: the seamless swerve from horrifying realism into (if you think about it equally horrifying) supernatural fantasy. He gets free when the bullies cut him free and tie a dead swan to his back, make him climb a tree and shoot him. He falls out of the tree but somehow flies home, using the swan’s wings, before dying in the arms of his mother. It’s an incredibly good story.

yes, my asslessness would also be a plus in this situation but there’s no way my melonhead squash would fit between train and tie.

beth, tit-allotment is cracking me up.

that story freaked the SHIT out of me as a kid. (xxp)