Trains used to be a familiar sight on the campus of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, loading and unloading students right on the grounds in the first half of the 20th century and bringing equipment and supplies for building projects until 20 years ago.

		Graphic: Tracks on campus

But for the past two decades, the school's 14,000 students have been the only traffic on the tracks, using them as walkways and crossing them at will on their way to and from classes and activities. That will change next spring when the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad reactivates a line that will haul coal straight through campus en route to the Homer City Generating Station.

Crews on work trains are on the job fixing the line and their presence has raised safety concerns about how easily the campus community and the coming locomotion will mix.

A couple of weeks ago, one of the work trains blocked a route that students regularly use. Though the engine was running, and the train was only six cars long, the students walked through it and under it instead of going around.

"The students got very impatient and went underneath the train," said Shawn Houck, the safety press officer with PennDOT's Indiana office. "When one did it, two or three did it behind them."

Those actions have made school administrators fearful that a student will be injured by the newly arriving trains.

To prevent that, IUP's engineering department removed a small footbridge that crossed the tracks behind the school's tennis courts, replacing it with orange net fencing and "No Trespassing," signs.

Operation Lifesaver, a nationwide program designed to educate people on the dangers of railroad crossings, will be giving classes to school-age students, and IUP also will try to spread the word.

"Our biggest worry is the rails are a main walkway for the students," Houck said. "There's going to have to be a major change of behavior."..........

Students living off campus to the south of the university have to cross the tracks often.

"I probably can just look and see if one's coming, and you can probably hear it, too," said Jane Burkholder, a first-year graduate student in school psychology. Though she crosses the tracks three times a day, she's not worried about the trains.

Allison Arcurio, a sophomore on the IUP tennis team, said she knew the rail line had been reactivated only because she recently saw a train there.

"People kept driving through [in front of it] until, finally, someone had to come out and just stop traffic," Arcurio said.

Though there are 14 railroad crossings going through Indiana, including across busy Philadelphia Street, only two of those pose great concern for IUP officials.

One is at Grant Street and Oakland Avenue, which will be marked with red flashing lights and a crossing arm, and the other is on Maple Street, between 11th and 13th streets. That intersection will be marked with signs that say "Railroad Crossing." There will be no active warning system, said Robert L. Marx, director of engineering and construction at IUP.

Courtnay Rattigan, a senior psychology and criminology major, thinks that's a bad idea. Because students walk out in front of moving cars without much thought, she figures they'll do the same with a train.

"It would have to be something flashy. I don't think even a cross arm would stop people," she said. "They'd just walk around it."

Though the trains will travel 10 mph through town, there are still risks, Houck said.

"There are more crashes involving slow-moving trains than fast-moving trains," he said.

At Grinnell College, trains have been a part of campus life since the school's 1846 founding.

Cargo trains pass through campus, running north and south, two or three times each day, said Dann Hayes, director of media relations. There is another line that runs east to west through the town of Grinnell.

"Because of that, cross trains have to go extra slow, which is a bonus for us," Hayes said.

The trains blast their horns at least two intersections before arriving on campus, giving plenty of warning. To further ensure student safety, procedures to deal with train collisions have been outlined in handbooks that will be distributed in every classroom, office and at every telephone at the school, Hayes said.

"For the most part, I think it's just common sense."

At Grinnell, the trains haul farming supplies, including fertilizer, Hayes said.

In Indiana, the trains will be hauling coal. Each one is expected to have 40 to 50 cars, carrying a total of about 5,000 tons of coal per shipment, said Kevin Bowser, the director of marketing and industrial development for the railroad company.

They will stretch approximately a half mile down the tracks. In the beginning, Bowser expects a train going to and leaving the power plant once each day, Monday through Friday. "If demand would increase, frequency would increase," he said.

The Homer City Generating Station, operated by Midwest Generation in Chicago, is one of the biggest power plants on the eastern seaboard, said Charley Parnell, the regional vice president of government affairs. It burns 17,500 tons of coal a day, providing power to Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey.

Before turning to rails for coal delivery, the Homer City plant received coal by truck. There are 1,100 truck deliveries each day, Parnell said, with the trucks carrying about 24 tons per trip.

"It's never been economically feasible [to use rails] before now," Bowser said.

The trains will originate north of Homer City, and Punxsutawney will serve as the crew-change yard for the trains. The rails are being replaced all the way from Creekside to Homer City.

Local officials hope that over the next several months, as the smaller work trains continue to repair the rails, students will get used to them and work them into their walking paths.