Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 13, 1995                   TAG: 9508140079
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TRAIN TRIP WAS LONGER THAN BOY PLANNED

But when the train sped up, the boy was afraid to hop off and remained riding on the platform of a ``double stack carrier'' until it slowed in Salem, 45 miles later, Salem police said.

Bob Auman, Norfolk Southern Corp. public relations manager, said a double stack carrier is different from a freight car or a coal car. It is a flatbed car upon which two containers, such as the trailers of tractor trailers, are stacked.

He said another train was stopped near Dillard Paper Co. on Apperson Drive about 10 p.m. when the crew noticed the boy holding onto the moving train.

That crew radioed the crew of the moving train to stop.

Salem Police Sgt. B.R. Nunley said the boy was not hurt, but ``he looked like he had been working on the railroad. He was covered with soot and grit,'' Nunley said.

The experience apparently shook up the child.

``When we first talked to him, he couldn't even remember his name,'' Nunley said.

The boy's mother drove from Pulaski to pick him up early Saturday morning.

``He seems to be a real nice kid,'' Nunley said.

Auman said Norfolk Southern will press charges against the boy in Pulaski for trespassing on a railroad train. Auman could not say what penalty that charge carries.