It's illegal to put pennies on the train tracks in Virginia

Penny flattened by a trainPhoto byFlickr screenshot

Pennies on the train tracks

No one told us baby boomer children in Botetourt County, Virginia that it was illegal to walk on train tracks because they were private property. Code of Virginia§ 18.2-159 Trespassing on Railroad tracks indicates that if you do anything except cross a track, you are guilty of a class 4 misdemeanor.

My grandmother led a group with my brothers, and myself, cousins, and friends on several excursions where we placed pennies on the Norfolk Southern tracks. We waited for trains to run over them and knew the schedule because of the time of day the whistle blew.

Once the train ran over the pennies, we retrieved them and kept them for good luck. They were flat and wiped clean of all logos. As children and teens, we often crossed the tracks back and forth, thankfully without harm.

There is a rumor that pennies on the tracks will derail a train, but Snopes.com says this is not true. Mcpactions has an excellent article with details about the very informative danger of the railroads.