Gary Allen Montelongo won $10,000 for a science project on train derailment. Montelongo built and coded an experiment on railroad suspension, then won a national competition. AdvertisementThe internship ended, but Montelongo couldn't get the derailment off his mind, so he went down to the train tracks near his house. Then he built three sets of model railroad tracks out of foam and fitted them with three different types of springs: fresh new springs, midlife springs, and old, worn-out springs. This mimicked the different suspension systems he'd seen at the train tracks near his home.

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Persons: Gary Allen Montelongo, Montelongo, —, Lisa Fryklund, Ajmera, Montelongo couldn't Organizations: Service, Fisher Scientific, Junior, Society for Science, Broadcom, Federal Railroad Administration, University of Texas, NASA, SpaceX Locations: Ohio, East Palestine , Ohio, University of Texas Rio Grande