The place where two independent railway lines cross – with no possibility of interchange – is called “The Diamond.” There is such a Diamond in the small town of Navasota ,Texas – where the north-south Union Pacific line crosses the east-west Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
And this unusual set of railway tracks attracted an aspiring young model from Navasota and her photographer to get some publicity photos. Bad idea.
Things were going well until they spotted an oncoming Santa Fe freight. They thought they had moved safely out of the path but the young model simply exchanged one cause of death for another. She got out of the way of the Santa Fe freight all right; she didn’t see that she had simply moved into the path of a Union Pacific train coming the other way behind her. Her photographer was luckier. She was not.
Her name was Zanie Thompson. She was 19 years old, engaged and expecting her first child. All gone in the blink of an eye – and for no good reason at all.
When I used to take the CPR commuter train 40 years ago, there were posters in the Montreal West station that showed the danger of trespassing on railway tracks. They were titled – Short Cut to Destiny. That pretty much sums it up. A Diamond is sadly not always a girl’s best friend.
