If a piece of coal had come off that train and hit a trains windscrenn travelling in the opposite direction it could have killed the driver QUOTE]
I'd be very surprised if that would happen. Windscreens are amazingly tough and in 10 years on the railway i've not known anything penetrate a windscreen.
I've even taken a sledge hammer to a windscreen that had been removed due to being cracked and could not puncture the polycarbonate layer.
Does this count? HST + tree
Although, to be fair, it doesn't look as though the windscreen itself has been penetrated...