The evening of Jan. 5, 2005, was dry and cool in Graniteville, S.C. At 6:10, a 12-car Norfolk Southern freight train pulled up to the Avondale Mills textile plant, and Jim Thornton, a conductor with 18 years’ experience, climbed down from the locomotive to open a switch and let the train roll onto a siding.
It was getting close to the hour by which, according to law, the crew had to quit for the day and rest.
Read the complete article by Dan Baum at Popular Science.
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