Considering the fact that the trestle bridge seemed to hold up just fine during Samson's first month or so of express runs, why did it collapse? Certainly, it wasn't because of Samson's weight, or it would have broken earlier.
It is important to know that a locomotive's static weight isn't the only force upon a bridge. At high speeds, a conventional steam locomotive tends to wreak havoc on rails in the long run because of the hammering effect. Hammering in this case refers to the vertical force component of the driving wheel balance weight's centripetal reactions to going around and around. The balance weight of each driving wheel is intended to smooth out the back-and-forth reaction force caused by the piston strokes and reaction force of the coupling rods keeping the driving wheels rolling together. But all of this rotational balancing does nothing for the fact that the wheels are constantly swinging heavy masses up and down as they rotate. The resulting vertical forces tend to mess with rails, track beds, and whatever else is beneath.
When Linus is found after his boiler explosion; he is clearly devoid of life. He is even seen going to whatever the train equivalent of heaven looks like... so how, when he is repaired, does he have life again?
Considering that Samson is possibly going to haul logs in the place where Linus was enslaved, how long will the abusive staff remain employed if they attempt to whip or shoot Samson?
I'd give it about a day. Who's to say that Samson himself won't be the one to put them out of a job? He looks like the type who'd make them quit for trying to mess around with him.
So where did Linus' slave-owner actually go after Linus deposes him to the mercy of his spiteful colleague?
The ghost train probably consumed him and turned him into fuel. But then how would it do that with those jagged teeth that lead nowhere?
