Here is a link to some suggestions on keeping safe while railfanning. I think everyone should read it. It's a good reminder to be safe than sorry. http://www.rrdepot.com/railfan/tracksidesafety.php
Johnny, this reminds me of a incedent that happened sometime last summer. Pasangers were loading onto the Yolo tour train. All the people were on the train and it was about ready to pull out. A lady jumped off, went to the adjacent track and started snapping pictures of somebody on the tour train. She didn't see or hear the old baldwin 0-4-0 creeping along the track. Just the engine and tender. No cars. I know the engineer saw her but he kept creeping up real slow. He got about 30 feet from her and blasted the whistle. That lady jumped so high I thought she was on her way to the moon. The Engineer stopped the engine and he and the fireman climbed out and laughed so hard they almost fell over. Of coarse I laught also. It was really funny and I'll bet that lady learned a thing or two.
People just get caught up in the moment and common sense seems to vanish into thin air! [I'm sure I'd be there too cracking up after that one!] But seriously, I know that especially here in the city one just has so much on their mind that it isn't unheard of to just step off a street corner into oncoming traffic and nearly get creamed. I've done it myself. Trains and tracks are something to stand away from, and they are to be taken for granted.
Looks like a good site. Thanks for the link. There is never too much written or spoken about safety. It is a major theme on all the tours I conduct for the Danbury Railway Museum. So, any additional material or new point of view is always welcome.
Last Friday, (the 31st of May) we had our annual "school train." We had elementry school students from about 6 different locations on the train ranging from kindergaden to perhaps grade 3, along with their teachers and some parents aboard. After leaving Yreka and traveling for about a mile and a half, I observed a man, woman and a small boy standing at a crossing within a sawmill. The man was motioning us me to stop the train. I reasoned that the woman and child missed our departure, so I applied the brakes and was coming to a stop. When I looked behind to spot the car with the door on it so they could enter I was horrified to see the woman walking between the flat car and a coach (while the train was not yet stopped) handing her child to someone in the flat car .. then she proceeded to climb aboard herself! There was nothing I could do .. I already had the brakes on. Some people are really stupid! I wonder if she knows how lucky she and her child were?
Pierce, I sure hope to get up to the museum one weekend this year. I've heard nothing but good things about the place! Bill, it's no wonder why excursions are so expense to run because of insurance reasons. That woman is stupid. An outright fool. It's like the people here that cross in the middle of the street pushing a baby stroller! It's ok to sacrifice the kid because you are a brainless human!!!!!!!! Worse is a brainless parent! One wierd thing I saw was while I was on the Potomac Eagle in Romney, WV was a deer that was racing along side of us and cut right in front of the engine and train! The firemen may have seen it just at the last second and everyone ran from one side of the open gon to the other to see if the deer made it! Luckily we saw it bounding up the hillside. I think I'd feel more sorry for the animal than a careless numbskull. Except if were a child.
We pass through alot of open pastureland on our run ... one day we encountered a fairly large herd of cattle. They of course, will stand on the rails, looking at us, chewing with grass hanging out of their mouths until the locomotive is about 6 feet from them then take off running in some undetermined direction .. which in turn gets the rest of the herd in an uproar. Even had a big bull charge the loco a couple of years ago .. he lost! ;o\ Anyway .. some people are just as dumb as those animals ... walking between cars as they continue to move with her attention diverted from her footing, etc. is just the same as a steer standing there watching the man swing a sledge hammer at its head. Sheesh!
Bill, Anything as LARGE such as a moving snorting locomotive should scare both man and beast! Did you guys have a cookout afterwards? HA! HA! HA! I love burgers! Get 'em while they're fresh! Oh oh. I just remembered I have a tattoo on my left shoulder of a bull running down a railroad track! Hey Bill! That ain't funny after all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let me change the subject! Ever get behind the controls of a....a.......GULP.............d...i...e...s...e..l????????
Well .. yeah (sort of). The Yreka Western has two old .. and I do mean *old* SW8s that we use to haul freight. Both were built in 1953. They are unique because they are equipped with dynamic brakes. One of them is out of service due to a spun bearing on the crankshaft. The other is still limping along. Whenever it stops running we get out old reliable #19 (steam) to pull the freight. I had to qualify for engineer certification on both diesel and steam. I think running diesels is boring for the most part. Don't have to think much about anything except brakes while running them ... steam on the other hand you have to be on top of everything all the time.
Bill, that had to be terrifying to see that woman and child walk between the cars. Sometimes I really wonder where all the common sense went. Got sucked into the TV I guess. BTW, what is the mythical state of Jefferson? I always wonder when I pass that big hay shed with the letters on it outside of Yreka near the iron cow. You guys thought iron horse was a term, you need to see the iron cow near Bill's railroad. Also apologize (got an email) for my many times referring to Yreka Western with an "and" between. I was wrong about that, too. [ 05 June 2002, 02:59: Message edited by: fitz ]
Fitz .. no apology necessary my friend .. we knew what you were talking about As for the "Mythical State of Jefferson" .. that's too involved to get into here. But if you will visit the yrekawesternrr website noted at the bottom of my signature, on the left side there is a link called "other informative links". In that page I have placed a link regarding Jefferson.
Bill, thanks for the info. I never knew about that at all. The sign will have new meaning next time I pass it. I tried to email you off line but (just like my daughter's) your hotmail account has "exceeded storage allocation." The whole concept of the State of Jefferson still has merit. Recently one of our eastern Oregon counties passed measures outlawing the UN in their county and authorizing lumbering in the National Forest. The revolution is beginning.
Considering the action in Oregon regarding access to Public Lands for timber operations and a parallel action in Nevada for cattle ranchers to access their Public Land for grazing ... I'd say you are right Jim. And lets not forget the plight of the farmers in the Klamath Basin who struggled for water all last year because of an "endangered" Sucker fish! Sheeesh! Where will it ever end?
