by Rod Hughes

Limon Province: A diesel locomotive towing 21 cars loaded with bananas tangled with a bull weighing nearly 1,500 lbs. in the verdant banana-producing Valle de la Estrella, killing the bull but derailing the locomotive, reported the daily La Nacion.
Witnesses related that the locally well-known bull, named Chepe, escaped from his pasture and encountered another bull–on the railroad tracks–and began fighting for domination. Thus engrossed, Chepe did not heed the repeated toots of the train’s horn–whether he intended to take on the train as well is not known. No one was injured in the locomotive, which plowed into the lush tropical underbrush and overturned after leaving the tracks.
After getting over their shock, the neighbors immediately set to with knives to remove the meat from the fresh carcase, with the blessing of the woman who owned Chepe. “Everyone took advantage,” neighbor Guillermo Gutierrez told the paper, “The beef was good and it seemed a shame to waste it.” He did not mention the unique way it had been tenderized.
The engineer noted that hitting animals–mostly errant cows and horses–was not unknown in this sparcely-populated area but usually without such drastic results. The locomotives serving the banana plantations are not equipped with cowcatchers as were those in the U.S. Wild West.