Walking On The Tracks - A New Fad, Or Potential Disaster?

[mp202]

I have been seeing many photos popping up in my news feed quite recently. Many are just normal mirror self shots, but a few really disturbed me. It is of, and not to be sexist or anything, but of teenage girls only in or around my grade, walking along the tracks taking pictures of themselves. Now, of course walking on the tracks is extremely frowned upon, especially by law enforcement, railroad(ers(s)), and by us Trainzers. Apparently, even their parents don'tgive a care. Do they not realize the immense danger that their child is in? I think not. Even one parent commented, and I quote,

U look so cute, darlin! U shuld take more on them tracks, provides a nice scenery for ur pics!

Little did they realize that she was walking along the VERY active UP Chicago - STL Main Line where Amtrak trains and UP manifests and hot shots are travelling at track speed well over 80 MPH, and the Amtraks at 110 MPH. We all know it takes well over a mile for those long trains to come rolling to a stop, especially at those speeds.

Now more and more have been coming up on Facebook, and I keep getting more and more disappointed at my generation. This walking on the tracks deal has seemed to become a fad among people my age. Would you agree?

Now back to the "Walking on the UP MAIN". What if that child was too caught up in taking her picture, tripped and hit her head on the concrete ties? What if the engineer couldn't see her lying on the tracks unconscious? What if she was hit by the freaking train?! That's for her parents to contemplate after they come home from the funeral visitation. Maybe they should have thought of this sooner. (And this was just an example. Nobody died, so don't freak out.)

Now what I am saying is that nobody should ever walk on the tracks for recreation. Not only because it is insanely dumb but it is potentially hazardous and deadly. Also what I am asking is, what is the appeal of walking on the tracks for recreation? What is it's purpose other than making you look like a, well I shouldn't say, but it is another word for donkey.

This has been stirring round and round in my head for a while, now.

Just my thoughts,

 

[fran1]

Was burrow the other word ?
They obviously haven't seen the remains of a human just hit by a train. I have, 6 pieces in total spread over a large area. Not pleasant.

 

[sawyer811]

I was thinking about something similar to this today; there was a news piece about a guy who rode his dirtbike along a nearby railroad track (looked to be the ex-MoPac KC-southbound since he was clobbered by an Amtrak) and ended up...well, you get the idea. The man took full responsibility for being hit; he flat out said he wasn't aware of his surroundings, that he somehow, "missed an Amtrak train, on his horn and slamming on his brakes..."

What bothered me, though, was the way the news anchor presented the story. She said, "with his helmet tucked on tight" (obviously pandering to those who moan and groan about THAT issue, at least in my eyes...) "and with his engine howling, he never heard the train coming." There were some other comments, but I was only half-listening at that point. the Anchor seemed to go out of her way to lay the blame squarely on the one entity that couldn't have avoided tradgedy if they'd wanted to; the train and it's crew. She basically made an excuse for the rider, saying he could be forgiven for missing the MULTI-THOUSAND TON CHUNK OF STEEL BARRELING AT HIS FACE....

I'm sorry, but this gets on my nerves after a while. For all Operation Lifesaver (and other entities like them) have done, public ignorance still seems to be the rule rather than the exception. People think that trains can stop on a dime like a car can; I once spent about half an hour explaining how reduction air brakes work, and how they effect the reaction time needed to bring a train to a stop ("You do realize it takes time to fully implement a service reduction of brake pressure to the entire length of a 100-plus car train, right?") to only have the person/people I was explaining this too say, "well, then why don't they just fit the same brakes a car has to trains?"

You don't want to hear what I said after that...

 

[mp202]

You don't want to hear what I said after that...

Oh but I do! :hehe:

The FRA mandates that that any horn installed on a locomotive must exceed the decibel level of any street legal automobile, including that adrenaline junky's dirt bike! Now with that horn, piled on top of the engine itself, and the squealing of the Auto Brakes, helmet or not, that guy should've noticed the train barreling straight towards him... Unless he was deaf and blind which I really don't think was the case. Just another "oh so treasured" act of stupidity.

 

[frogpipe]

Used to walk the tracks of the NEC back in the 1980s.

Two simple rules, which came from my grandfather, NEVER anywhere but the outside rail (4 track mainline), NEVER out of sight of the grade crossing.

Of course when the bells go off, you get the hell outta there.

Of course being there with my grandfather is a far cry from wandering where there was probably no crossing to alert you all by yourself...

 

[JIb228]

I once was taling to a guy who worked for NS. He was part of the crew of a train that hit and killed a man one night. The man was drunk and walking home form the bar and decided that the tracks where a suitable side walk. (I do give props to the guy for not driving home, but still.) Latter the wife took NS and that road crew to court, trying to sue NS for causing her husbands death. Her argument was the train should have swerved out of the way.

But no, this whole fad of taking pictures of your self on train tracks is stupid. I can see how it it has some meaning. "Looking down the tracks to my future." Or, "On the right track in life." But it makes me mad when people do it. They are trespassing, doing stupid things that make us rail fans look bad. (Never mind the fact that I was jsut out rail fanning with a friend and we both walked along the edge of the tracks.)

 

[mp202]

Her argument was the train should have swerved out of the way...

---

They are trespassing, doing stupid things that make us rail fans look bad. (Never mind the fact that I was jsut out rail fanning with a friend and we both walked along the edge of the tracks.)

I seriously had to lol at that woman's, more or less, excuse. It's not like there was a conveniently placed 10 ft siding that the train could have diverted onto... Apparently the woman does not understand that tracks are a fixed position/direction entity that does not allow changes in either without a separate apparatus. Sorry I had to get scientific on you. xD

I also forgot to mention that they were trespassing.

And also, my post wasn't to make me seem like a hypocrite because I too walk along the tracks, but only for s short distance but it is inexcusable, nonetheless. I was told this when I posted pictures of me on the tracks taking pictures of hopper cars. But hey, I was there with a (reasonable) purpose.

Excusable nonetheless.

 

[Blutorse4792]

I wouldn't call it a new fad, kids have always liked to walk on the tracks. In fact, it seems like it was even more popular a few decades ago. I suppose a big part of the draw is that so many right-of-ways can be relatively isolated.

I used to walk on the tracks when I was a kid, it was a straight route to my friends on the other side of town. Sure, it was stupid and illegal, but I was always aware of my surroundings. It was basically on a glorified branch line that saw 4 trains (back and forth local and road freight) per day (usually in the early morning and late night), and there weren't any spots where I wouldn't have been able to jump off if I'd been caught. Plus, you could see about half a mile in either direction, and the speed limit was pretty low (The J switchers didn't even have speedometers).

Not advocating it, just throwing my 2 cents in.

 

[amrail2000]

Not sure if this relates but here goes. A couple of years ago I was doing an interview for a local TV station at a local grade crossing where a Vehicle Train accident with fatalities had occurred. The reporter and I were off the tracks. Then I look at the camera man. Who is standing center mass of the main line with train speeds of 60mph. I wasn't too nice when I told him to get of the tracks and report the not become the news. Yes like all youngsters I walked along the tracks. That all stopped the day I had to remove two bodies from under a train, then get cleaned up and go notify two separate families. Yes this thing has been around since trains have used tracks.

 

[frogpipe]

I think the real issue here is that unlike when we were kids (for me I was born 1970) - it's now possible to easily whip out a little device, take a picture, and upload it for the world to see.

At the very least I'd have had to take a sizable camera (at least by todays standards), snap the pic, take it to a photomat, wait a week, get mulitple copies, and snail mail and or pass them out to share the moment...

 

[mp202]

I am talking about taking pictures of yourself on the tracks. I understand that many of us have walked on the tracks at some time or another. My dad and uncles used to see how close they could stand next to trains whenever they went by... But that was back in the 80's.

 

[jlp1551]

I've seen video of kids playing chicken with trains, just hang there on the track waiting till the last moment to jump. What dummies!!!!! Potential candidates for a Darwin award. And, think how many years the engineer ages while he is praying he doesn't hit one of the dummies. And of course the hell they go thru if they hit one of those dummies!

 

[Steamdemon]

Walking on railway tracks, especially here in Britain, can not only get you into trouble with the police, It could be severely fatal, possibly starting with a sudden jolt of electricity and ending with death. Or you could be hit by train. *Points to signature*

 

[jordon412]

The only place I often walk on tracks is at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. I don't walk on the mainline in and out of the Grand Junction station, off of Tennessee State Highway 153. I walk on the tracks where they display their equipment, not the mainline. Also, when their trains pass thru a pedestrian crossing leading to Grand Junction, specifically their steam powered ones, I go to the edge of the yellow line and let the train roll by, feeling the ground shake as the train passes by. I once had to get onto some people who were not behind the yellow line as one of the trains was coming. I also had to get onto some people who were across the yellow line at the station platform at Grand Junction as the train came into the station. I would say something like: "Hey! It's not safe to be on that side of the yellow line! Get back with eveyone else on this side of the yellow line (pointing to everyone else waiting on the platform)!"
Once I strayed onto the mainline in downtown Dalton, but it was only for a few seconds, and I made sure that a train was coming by looking and listening before straying onto the tracks at a railroad crossing. I did this when I was around nine, ten years old, and it was to see what the signals protecting where Norfolk Southern/CSX's lines from Chattanooga and Atlanta cross each other. I only spent enough time to tell what the signal indication was, then got off the tracks.
I once stood beside the tracks as a CSX freight train passed thru downtown Dalton. It was at a parking lot that butted up to the CSX mainline. I didn't stray onto the tracks, but stood on the asphalt parking lot as the train passed thru town. I knew that trains had to slow down while going thru downtown (I didn't know that CSX's speed limit thru downtown Dalton was 25MPH at that time. I thought it was slower.). I didn't know that the traction motors produce heat as the train is in motion.
There's a railroad crossing just north of downtown Dalton that's located next to a 'road' intersection with a traffic light. I lost count how many times a car has been sitting on the railroad tracks waiting for the light to turn green even though there's a sign on the other side of the tracks that says 'Stop Here', with and arrow pointing to the road in front of the railroad crossing. I sometimes think when I see a car sittting on those tracks: They'll learn when they get hit by a train, IF they survive.
I must note that as a high school graduation present, I went down to Folkston, Georgia, which all CSX and Amtrak trains have to pass thru to get into Florida. Other than seeing the Tropicana Juice Train, Amtrak's Auto Train, and either Amtrak's southbound Silver Meteor or the Silver Star, I also remember seeing a guy on a bicycle crossing a railroad crossing just a few seconds before a CSX train passed thru the same crossing.

 

[Engineerkenny]

lol I was at the train station (west barnstable) here are two funny stories:
1. I saw a man running down the tracks so i learned that when you say "I see a bowling pin on the track" that means there is someone on the tracks so fred who is always keeping people off the tracks and tells over the speaker when the train will be hear he ran up to him stopped him and said "HEY GET OFF THE TRACKS!"
his replie is "WHO CARES I CAN JOG WHERE EVER I WANT"
so then he runs down the tracks and fred goes to call the engineer and he goes in looking for him and he says this is the funnyiest part:hehe: he says" YOUR DISRESPECTING ME!!!!" IAM TELLIN YOUR BOSS and runs off! :hehe::hehe:
heres the next so we were just sitttin waiting to help get people off the 12:25 and a man is walking on the tracks and my dad is like"HEY!!! HEY YOU GET OFF THE TRACKS!!!!! then he says "why?"

then my dad says" "THATS TRESPASSING" the guy then says" oh i'm just hunting in the woods i'm just cuttin accross but then....... clang clang clang HOOOONK HONK HONK HOOONK
and so we had called the engineer to procicede with slow speed already and were like GET OFF THE TRACKS and He just steps off into the woods lol but still that was a scary moment!
one very last one me and my dad were at point plesant NJ station and we were fixing the beach house so we dieceded to take a train video but as trhe train is blasting its horn 3 guys run across saying" AAAHHH the train is here were going to miss are train meanwhile the crossing gates are lowered one guy trips thats when I was kind in shock like WHAAAT?! and he gets up just as the train comes blasting its horn into the station pretty scary sadly we were not recording at the moment to catch that

 

[sawyer811]

used to walk on the tracks when I was a kid, it was a straight route to my friends on the other side of town. Sure, it was stupid and illegal, but I was always aware of my surroundings. It was basically on a glorified branch line that saw 4 trains (back and forth local and road freight) per day (usually in the early morning and late night), and there weren't any spots where I wouldn't have been able to jump off if I'd been caught. Plus, you could see about half a mile in either direction, and the speed limit was pretty low (The J switchers didn't even have speedometers).

Not advocating it, just throwing my 2 cents in.

but see, that's the difference (and frogpipe said something to the same effect also); you, me, and most other train fans would be in a far better place to NOT get hit in a situation like this. I mean, I've walked (and every now and then still walk) a rail line near me that sees 60+mph BNSF transcon freights numerous times a day. However, I'm always aware of my surroundings (I laid into a friend of mine once for walking down the tracks with his headphones in!) and I make a point to keep an eye out for any and every place I can bail from the RoW if I do happen to get bushwacked by a train. I always walk on the outside rail (it used to be single track with passing siding, but has since been fully double-tracked) since It's apparently common for dispatchers to arrange slow-speed rolling meets between two trains on this stretch. This is just a deduction I've made from watching enough trains go by on this route.

bear in mind, I'm in no way advocating doing this (lord knows, I've been bushwacked by trains a few times, and I know what to listen for!) but I'm saying that, if you're actually going to do something like this, there's safe and unsafe ways to go about it...

 

[Blutorse4792]

I will add, even watching out, it is easy to get caught by surprise.
The most dangerous are the Metra lines, because you literally cannot hear an oncoming cab car until the last few seconds. They glide.

 

[JCitron]

It's not just people walking along the tracks that cause problems. One morning on my way into Boston, the train stopped at Reading, started moving and stopped hard in emergency braking. We sat for some time until some emergency vehicles came by. Finally we were allowed to get off the train and were transferred to a bus because the train's schedule was canceled for the rest of the trip. Some woman decided to run for the train because she was late and lost her foot in the process. She ran in front of the train and tripped just as the train pulled forward.

Quite a few years ago two young ladies were killed in Beverly, MA. They were walking along the tracks with their headphones on and didn't hear the commuter train coming along. They became part of the scenery and tracks since the train couldn't stop in time. Much earlier, during the 1980s, some kids were hit on the B&M Portland ME line up in North Andover. They were walking along the tracks with their Walkman Radios (shows how long ago) blasting in their ears. Both were killed as they were back to the train, walking on the mainline at night, in the dark, wearing dark clothing. I suppose even if the engineer of this commuter train had seen them, he couldn't have stopped anyway, but they were totally invisible and totally unaware of their surroundings.

In both of these cases, the local news and newspapers made the problem out to be the railroad and the MBTA as being the bad guys. There are no trespassing signs all over the place, and on the Beverly section, there is a fence along the tracks to keep pedestrians off. These girls had gone around the fence to walk on the double-track line.

When I lived in Andover I used to walk along the tracks, but never on them from Essex Street crossing to Ballardvale. On this relatively straight section of track, I could see the signals in both directions, so it was cool to see if a train was coming along or not. This used to be double and triple track from Lowell Junction all the way to CP Frye, and was reduced to a single track with no passing sidings in the mid-1970s. There was plenty of space to walk along since this was more like a path, so you'd think it was safe. So I thought anyway... One day a local freight came along from Lowell Junction heading towards Lawrence. He was moving at quite a clip through Andover and there was a lot of dust and stuff being whipped up as he moved along. It turned out that one of the straps had broken on the side of a plywood car, and the strap was whipping up the ballast and dirt as it ripped through the weeds and small trees along the tracks like a weed wacker. When the train went through Andover near Essex Street, it did quite a bit of damage to some cars that were parked illegally in the office park entrance. These were cars left there by commuters who didn't want to pay the $1.50 per day at the commuter lot. I guess this cost them a lot more than the $1.50 per day after that!

So the moral of this story is don't even think about staying next to the tracks. Loose straps and debris can be just as deadly. Granted, the cars only had broken windshields and lots of lost hood ornaments, and broken front ends, but imagine what kind of damage that could do to humans! This could be just as deadly as being hit directly by the train its self!

John

 

[sawyer811]

Good point, that; that's the reason I'd always look for (and indeed still do, on the rare occasions I walk the rail line) the quickest and safest place for me to jump down out of the way if a train comes barreling at me. I'd never let myself have anything blocking my ears if and when I were to do this (nowadays it would only be about 100-150 yards or so to a favorite railfanning spot of mine; pretty secluded, but gives you great views of a sweeping curve and dual bridges, with a set of double-direction enabled signals to tell me if anyone's coming). that said, blutorse's comment is very true indeed; we know what we're looking for (710eco engines, ALCo prime movers, steam chuff sounds, etc) and yet we can and do get ambushed by trains more often than we'd like. how much of a chance does someone who doesn't know what we know stand?

 

[JCitron]

Good point, that; that's the reason I'd always look for (and indeed still do, on the rare occasions I walk the rail line) the quickest and safest place for me to jump down out of the way if a train comes barreling at me. I'd never let myself have anything blocking my ears if and when I were to do this (nowadays it would only be about 100-150 yards or so to a favorite railfanning spot of mine; pretty secluded, but gives you great views of a sweeping curve and dual bridges, with a set of double-direction enabled signals to tell me if anyone's coming). that said, blutorse's comment is very true indeed; we know what we're looking for (710eco engines, ALCo prime movers, steam chuff sounds, etc) and yet we can and do get ambushed by trains more often than we'd like. how much of a chance does someone who doesn't know what we know stand?

Good points indeed. I've seen people stand on the tracks as a freight is coming at them. They don't seem to get it that the train is actually moving along quite quickly. It appears to be moving so slow because it's so big. Also if the wind is blowing the wrong way, they may not hear the engine and horn that loudly, especially if they have their ears plugged with headphones and they're not paying attention to their surroundings. This can make the train seem even farther down the tracks that it is.

John