How to write

Every morning I read the news and imagine the circumstances that led up to the reported events. I devise complicated plots and conspiracies, characters on the run from corrupt government officials or alien invaders. I love stories that place ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The truth behind these news stories is usually mundane – just plain old greed, stupidity or carelessness. Carelessness seems to be the cause of a tragic collision on September 12 when a commuter train ran a stop signal and crashed into a freight train.

One hundred and thirty five passengers were injured and twenty five others were killed, making it the deadliest train accident in the last 15 years. Investigators believe the engineer Robert Sanchez was using his cell phone at the time and didn’t see the stop signal. Sanchez was also killed in the crash, so investigators have to find answers elsewhere. They are checking out the Metrolink train and track equipment to verify proper functioning and what role dispatchers might have played. The conductor of the train, who gives the commands to the engineer, was being interviewed by law-enforcement officials.

The facts are few and sketchy, but I’m reminded of the plot from the movie Speed. A disgruntled cop plants a bomb on a bus and demands money. If the bus stops or slows down to get passengers off, the bomb will detonate. A similar story could be set on a commuter train. Instead of the heroic cop jumping on board to save the day, maybe the engineer is receiving instructions from the bomber on his cell phone. Another story set up – a biological weapon is on the freight train. The engineer is a CDC investigator who has to stop the train from reaching its destination and delivering death. Of course, you can go the Stephen King route and have the train come to life with evil intentions.

Life is ordinary, often tragic and inexplicable. Fiction is extraordinary, limitless and within your power. It is how I make sense of the senseless.

Train Facts per Metrolink website

Trains travel up to 90 mph (132 feet per second).
A train weighs 450 tons. It takes over one-half of a mile for a train traveling 90 mph to stop.
Trains are either pushed or pulled by locomotives.
Trains are twice as wide as the tracks.
Metrolink introduced 15 new-generation locomotives (MotivePower) which cost $2.9 million each.
MotivePower is 10 feet longer than current Metrolink locomotives and can haul 10 passenger cars instead of six. This translates to an extra 1,200 passengers.
It is equipped with automatic engine stop-start technology and electronic fuel injection providing injection timing and engine speed control.

Per Wikipedia
The general range of commuter trains varies between 15 and 180 km (9 and 111 miles), with operating speeds from 55 to 175 km/h (35 to 110 mph).