Why Did The Crims Tie Ladies To Railroad Tracks In The Old Days?

Dramatic license. It gives the hero sufficient time to rescue her, and gives the audience a roaring, moving threat coming down the tracks.

Criminals didn't really do this. It's just a staple of the movies.

It's like how in films and TV, air conditioner vents are often shown with streamers tied to the grate, so you can visually see the airflow. People don't really do this to their A/C vents, but it gives audiences information that, yes, air is flowing.

I read a book about the history of crime in America and most crimes involving railroad tracks were caused by children placing debris on the tracks so that the train would derail-- which would definitely cause deaths in the resulting accident.

So the whole "kids these days" thing on crime is really kind of bullshit.

It was a trope from nineteenth century stage melodramas when the villain would do something ridiculously wicked that the hero had to stop just in time. So when someone did a parody of old timey melodrama cliches in the 20th century ( like the Dudley Do Right cartoons on Bullwinkle) they’d have something happening like a young girl in a sawmill tied to a log about to be sawn in half.

[quote]People don't really do this to their A/C vents,

Excuse me for a few minutes.

I once broke it in half at a sawmill.

That is how QEII died, with Camilla twirling her handlebar

You'd think they did it to terrify the women but they really just hated trains. These men loved horses; they grew long mustaches to emulate a mane, and hated modern forms of transportation that threatened to eclipse their beloved steeds. Indeed, they spent much of their time trying to disrupt train travel. A woman tied to the tracks was the easiest and quickest way to derail a locomotive back then. Men were too bulky and children too small.