Don't ya just love a good April Fools gag?
This happened a bit late to make today's papers, but about 3 am some pranksters stole a parked Amtrak train (good for 110 miles per hour). They used the switch off the Hiawatha avenue "grain line" to get onto the light rail tracks. With some scrap cars on the rear they backed all the way to Fort Snelling, widening the station clearances enough to allow streetcar operation on the line. They made a couple of runs up and down the line at full speed (110 mph), getting airborne in spots. Metro Transit head Peter Bell finally shut down the operation when he mistakenly turned on the 25,000 volt overhead power wire which caused the GE locomotives to completely shutdown and stop the errant train in it's tracks. The resulting short to ground then went through a previously ignored contact between the LRT rails and those of our buried alive streetcar system. Sensing a need for more power, the entire power grid dumped all it's capacity into this short circuit, resulting in a momentary blackout about 4 am. This power surge, equivalent to the biggest electrical storm, blew off the decades of pavement that had covered streetcar tracks throughout the cities.
As we speak city crews are out clearing the rubble and streetcar service provided by Amalgamated Transit Union members should resume just before midnight tonight.
in best humor,
Dyna Sluyter from Hawthorne- where we really have rails and ties under the pavement!
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