Along with railroad safety classes it may help to somehow throw in there a little message to kids to try to grow up like decent humans. A walk along a freight line in the City revealed the following trackside junk: *AN ABANDONED, UPSIDE DOWN, BURNT CAR (Pushed over a 40 ft. embankment. Most likely stolen or reported so.) *DOZENS UPON DOZENS OF EMPTY SPRAY PAINT CANS FROM TAGGERS *EMPTY CRACK VIALS and SMALL EMPTY PLASTIC CRACK BAGS *A USED HYPODERMIC NEEDLE (Voted most disgusting.) *COUNTERFIT MONEY ( Voted most favorite! Darn realistic! Printed on both sides but only the paper was a dead giveaway! Lot's of it too! Amazing what you can do with color printers these days!) *NUMEROUS PILES OF HOUSEHOLD AND INDUSTRIAL TRASH *A HOMELESS CAMP, COMPLETE WITH SLEEPING BUM *AN OLD SUBWAY SIGNAL, HUNDREDS OF FEET FROM ANY SUBWAY LINE( Railroad junk, but not from a freight line.) *(and last but not least) YOUR TYPICAL BEER CANS STREWN EVERYWHERE Incredible. I'd like to hear what our members have encountered along their journeys.
John, the same is true along the CSX Main in south Mississippi. However the content is far less varied and imaginative. There are numerous lengths, sizes, and colors of plastic conduit left by both QWest and BellSouth after they installed their nationwide fiber-optic trunk lines .... although on different sides of the track. There are sufficient aluminum beverage cans to provide my wife and me with at least one round-the-nation Amtrak trip in sleepers .... if only Mississippi had a can deposit law. About 10 years ago, the local police escorted a large group foreign nationals to the INS. These individuals had jumped ship a year or so before and had set up housekeeping along the tracks in a grove of trees near our property. Actually they were quite resourceful and quiet neighbors, which is more than I can say for some of the home owners in the neighborhood. [ 04 June 2002, 01:51: Message edited by: Hank Coolidge ]
I don't know why it is cause it didn't used to be as bad but todays throw away society has almost everyone littering these days and as railroads pass so many back yards it is no wonder that all the trash gets thrown onto railroad property. Will it ever change?
Robin, we throw away our children and we throw away our elderly. Why not just throw our trash in a convienet place like the railroad tracks.
Johnny, I forgot to tell you. On the walk back along the tracks, I heard one of the guys exclaim "ooooh, what the (expletive) is that?" It looked like bone so we carefully turned it over. Turned out to be either a goat skull or a young calf. Naturally it was found close to Roosevelt avenue. Anyway, I had a strange thought of everyone modeling little HO or N-scale goat skulls to litter the side of their layouts! Strange mind I have sometimes!LOL Russ
rush2ny, did you know that Queens was a hotbed of Satanic cult activity, and probably still is? That skull may be from a large German Shephard, as that particular cult favored sacrificing them due to the founders of that cult owning many of them. Get the book 'The Ultimate Evil', I think its by John Davis, or something like that. It goes into detail about all the evidence that pointed toward a cult group in the Son of Sam killings, with ties all the way to California and Charles Manson, and some murders in Minot, North Dakota. It is some fascinating reading, and will make you think twice about finding skulls in your neck of the woods again.
Black Cloud, you are so right. Not only in Queens but all over the City. I have known people from many Hispanic and other countries that practice strange religions (at least to us) and have seen some strange things and have heard strange stories. Like the time the baby sitter that "kidnapped" my friend's son for a half day, only to find out the girl had taken the baby to some Santaria ceremony, possibly for a "blessing". My friend was suspicious from the time he came home and saw a burnt candle and a whole egg floating in a glass of water in his apartment, near the baby's crib. When he found out he not only fired her but told her to stay away or he'd kill her. I also remember looking for one of our softballs that had gone over a fence in the baseball diamonds in Riverside Park and landed in some bushes behind the fence , and stumbling upon a ring of burnt candles and a couple of dead pigeons. That was 30 years ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, Russ cracked me up with the tiny gaot skulls! That would be just about right!
Lots of people think the ROW is their own personal garbage dump. The 'scenic' countryside seen from the track is full of lost treasures like junked and burned out cars, old appliances, construction wreckage, household trash, animal carcasses and of course the ever-present beer cans and bottles. And speaking of animals, one of the worst things I've seen along the line was animals. A kind hearted but misdirected soul decided one winter that he would put out grain and salt blocks for the local deer population along the main line tracks behind his house. Nice thought - bad location. The deer would come to his feeding station and hang around the tracks between the snowbanks night and day. There wasn't a thing we could do about it and we slaughtered them by the dozens all winter, as well as the dogs and coyotes that came to the free venison dinner. This went on until spring came around and the guy figured out that the bad smell about his back yard was probably his own doing and that he really wasn't doing the neighborhood Bambis any favors by baiting them right across a 50 mph main. You'd have thought he'd notice the horns blowing and the thump on the plows every night. (sigh)
You guys hit it on the head. The Santeria cults (mostly hispanic/carribean) have taken over in NY where the satanic cults left off. I am surrounded by cemeteries, RR tracks and parks so I have occasion to see a lot of strange stuff around here. Scarier still though are the cults that roam the many abandoned subway tunnels here. Spooooky......! Russ
Around Ft.Worth, lets say UP's ney yard and all of their yards right their around Tower 55 to Peach to the big yard that I cant spell right is mainy discarded water bottles. I think they out number the beer bottles and crossties. Right there at Maganoila street, the north end of the Ney yard is a drainage ditch full of water bottles.
Around here the BNSF crews stick their empty water bottles in the chain link fences to make interesting artwork. I think it was even featured in the BNSF magazine.
I don't know about recycling people but thanks to Jack Black , some of us are well preserved!! Russ P.S. That is a very common piece of trash along the tracks, Jack Black, Night Train, Ripple!
I remember when Bally High was 77 cents a bottle, and the other guys and I in the park had a hard time coming up with it!!!!!!!!!!! Thank goodness I then discovered beer!
Only when the Moon and I are both full, and only then off out in the yards, so people will think the long low sound is a passing steamer way off in the mountains......
That's sooooo sentimental! Sniff! And who said only sailors and old cops were Salty Old Dogs???????? The other day when my partners and I were down in an industrial area of Brooklyn picking up air conditioners for the office at some warehouse, my partner Bob was standing by a fire hydrant lying on the gound. He asked me if I wanted it and I said, "That's ok, I'll use the bathroom inside".
