Haha, but in all seriousness can imagine how dangerous it could be at times. I believe Stewart St. partly follows the former track route.

Okay, for details on the history of the east-west RR through Athens my son recommends this link. He says the information here is primarily what he supplied.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marietta_and_Cincinnati_R...

Live ten years in Athens and you get colorful

I lived in Pickering Hall in 73-74, at the time named Old South vs New South.

I had a class with a scheduled test in Morton Hall just a stones throw away. But I overslept and the Long Train was Runnin-- very slowly. I recall starting to run upon reaching the ground at the bottom of Pickering's steps and seeing empty flat cars going by up ahead. I continued my pace and calculating my approach and dove up onto the car and tumbled/rolled off the other side and continued my run leaving numerous onlookers to their opinions of what they had witnessed.

My dad had been a hobo in his middle teens in the 1930's and later told stories of jumping moving trains. They quickly learned or were taught by others to have your momentum going in the same direction of the train as opposed to grabbing a speeding handle and be yanked/spun under the wheels. He also told me a sitting train is very dangerous to climb to the other side because the train could start and the cars clank together and a light grip could cause the climber to fall to the tracks between the cars. So at least some of Dad's teachings benefited me during my college days!

A bit off topic, but I took a Continuing Ed. class on surveying railroads.

We were told that it is virtually impossible, even for experienced railroad workers, to judge the speed of an oncoming train.