What is the most dumbest thing you seen someone do on railroad tracks? #tracksmart

[santafe8643]

The most dumbest thing I've seen (and this is recently) is a professional photographer taking pictures on active CSX railroad tracks. In my opinion, even if it is just for a few seconds, it's stupid, dangerous, and illegal. It made me nervous and it still does.

[JCitron]

I have seen so-called professional photographers climb up on signal gantries to get pictures of passing trains, stand in the middle of a busy ROW to get that special shot, and cross without looking while a mile-plus long coal train is barreling along.

I've also seen plain stupid, Darwin Award winning moves by common folk as they blow around crossing gates with a train within a few hundred yards and the engineer blowing his horn loudly, people doing the same on foot, and worse... Going down into the "pit" in a subway station, cross the electrified tracks, and climb up the opposite platform. In that case there was a security guard waiting for the idiot when he got up on the other side.

People do dumb things because they think trains are moving a lot slower than they are mostly because they're big and they can't always hear them. A quite a number of years ago, some kids were killed as they walked down the tracks, at night, while wearing dark clothing and plugged into headphones. I feel bad for the engineer because he had no warning that anyone was there until he rounded the bend in the dark.

[SharkNose]

Someone threw a 4 foot length of 2x4 at a freight train moving around 40 miles an hour at close range. Another gentleman and myself were watching the train and conversing about 30 feet down the track and were nearly struck by the 2x4 as it ricocheted and broke apart off the fast moving freight cars. After I bawled the guy out that threw the board, his reply was, "I threw it safely!"

[Mick_Berg]

The dumbest thing I ever saw was myself.

I ran in front of a Blue Line train in Los Angeles, with a wheeled bag that could easily have got caught in the tracks and made me trip, in which case I would not be around any more. The trains come every ten minutes, so I risked my life for a tiny delay.

I felt extremely stupid afterwards, and made a point of apologizing to the driver at the end of the trip. She said "don't worry, it happens all the time!"

Mick

[cascaderailroad]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCCMyLgl66s

[dcl0119]

This most definitely.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zW9RrPUu6j0

[cascaderailroad]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeKML8o5QEU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwO-IWorGv4

[santafe8643]

By the way, there's this channel called Cars vs. Trains. This one video shows a truck (rigid) trying to go around the gates only to end up stuck on just the two pieces of rails. When I find out how to put a video on here (yes, you have every right to call me a skrub for this) I'll post it.

[santafe8643]

Someone threw a 4 foot length of 2x4 at a freight train moving around 40 miles an hour at close range. Another gentleman and myself were watching the train and conversing about 30 feet down the track and were nearly struck by the 2x4 as it ricocheted and broke apart off the fast moving freight cars. After I bawled the guy out that threw the board, his reply was, "I threw it safely!"

Yeah. Let me know how "safely" you threw it when it hits a train crew. Or other innocent bystanders. Smh…thumbs down for that guy.

[santafe8643]

I have seen so-called professional photographers climb up on signal gantries to get pictures of passing trains, stand in the middle of a busy ROW to get that special shot, and cross without looking while a mile-plus long coal train is barreling along.

I've also seen plain stupid, Darwin Award winning moves by common folk as they blow around crossing gates with a train within a few hundred yards and the engineer blowing his horn loudly, people doing the same on foot, and worse... Going down into the "pit" in a subway station, cross the electrified tracks, and climb up the opposite platform. In that case there was a security guard waiting for the idiot when he got up on the other side.

People do dumb things because they think trains are moving a lot slower than they are mostly because they're big and they can't always hear them. A quite a number of years ago, some kids were killed as they walked down the tracks, at night, while wearing dark clothing and plugged into headphones. I feel bad for the engineer because he had no warning that anyone was there until he rounded the bend in the dark.

Yep. Train engineers always get the worst of it. Keep the train crews, their families, the victims and families in your prayers (if your religious. If not, I'm fine with that).

[santafe8643]

Alright, confession time. I, a few months ago, put some coins on the track and let an ex-UP SD90MAC and two other NS units run over them. After that, I attempted them another time. An NS employee told us to get off the tracks and so we did. Last time I'm doing that again. At least I hope… So a 'smh' for me.

[santafe8643]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_c28oIaGUkA

[santafe8643]

This is the video I was talking about.

[JCitron]

Yep. Train engineers always get the worst of it. Keep the train crews, their families, the victims and families in your prayers (if your religious. If not, I'm fine with that).

I sure do keep the crew in my thoughts. They and their families will face litigation, harassment, and psychological issues for the rest of their lives because of someone else's stupidity.

At one point I applied for a conductor's job, which was canceled and I didn't get it, but in the in-person interview I told this to who would have been my supervisor. He, I think was quite impressed, and had me come back for the second interview. This was quite a number of years ago, just before the Great Recession, and shortly after the interviewing process I got a letter that informed me that they were no longer offering that positions, blah, blah, blah, and they would keep my interview and resume on file for a year.

[santafe8643]

I sure do keep the crew in my thoughts. They and their families will face litigation, harassment, and psychological issues for the rest of their lives because of someone else's stupidity.

At one point I applied for a conductor's job, which was canceled and I didn't get it, but in the in-person interview I told this to who would have been my supervisor. He, I think was quite impressed, and had me come back for the second interview. This was quite a number of years ago, just before the Great Recession, and shortly after the interviewing process I got a letter that informed me that they were no longer offering that positions, blah, blah, blah, and they would keep my interview and resume on file for a year.

Wow. Interesting story. I appreciate you telling me. Btw I found an easy way to post videos and images on forums. Copy and paste.