Traded a cockpit ride many years ago with a cab ride. Will never tell who, where, or when even though pictures take of both.
We should all remember that Big Brother is watching…the days of cab rides are over…with no more descretion for young people/interested parties. You know…one bad apple spoils the bunch. Now go back to your computer son/daughter… or your x box or whatever you call it…
My ethics say: The kid is 18 and as painful as it sounds, an adult. And therefore if the Chicago Tribune is going to give him a such forum as the second story to express his views, it should identify him.
“The teen, who asked not to be named…”
What about “the engineers, who asked the teen not to publicize his rides…”?
I’ve also heard talk about a class action lawsuit – passengers v. Metra – for reckless endangerment. I can’t image how I’d feel riding in a Metra car and hearing some 17-year-old kid was at the controls. Egad!
As I said in response to the earlier thread in which someone was complaining about cab videos being removed from U-boob. This was bound to happen sooner or later. I feel for the engineers who were trying to be nice and will now lose their jobs over this and will face an uphill battle trying to be employed elsewhere as they know the rules. As to the FRN involved and others who think likewise, be prepared for FRA to institute additional regulations to address this and expect to see both the METRA Engineers and the FRN involved face civil penalties from FRA (to the extent it has jurisdiction) and perhaps even criminal charges. Railroads will also be much more restrictive about cab privileges and railfan friendly events, so all will lose.
LC
A class action is very unlikely to survive a dismissal as the riders have suffered no damage a necessary element in a negligence lawsuit. Reckless endangerment is not likely to be a viable claim as there is no showing of ratification by METRA of the conduct of the train crew.
LC
Thanks. I heard it last night on a radio talk show.
Honestly, I don’t think getting cab rides were the issue, I think the issue was a 18 year old operating a train that had passengers on it, risking his life, the engineer’s life and hundreds of other lives on the train. Commuter railroads will probably be more strict to prevent a similar situation to what happened in Chatsworth, and this incident is probably being talked about so much on the news because of the Metrolink crash.
Overall, if anyone were to be more strict to railfans it would probably be the commuter railroads like Metra and Metrolink. I doubt freight railroads will be affected too much by this. I’ve railfanned BNSF and EJ&E several times. The crews still wave, give me extra honks and flash their ditchlights when the see me just like always.
Actually the whole issue is an issue: railfan side and employee side. In the cab, outside the cab, operating the train, taking pictures all no-no’s. Then the fan blabbing it all over the universe, a worse no-no. No, the engineers, legally, had no right to allow him in thier cabs nor let him operate the train. But the fan betrayed the railroaders and the railfan community by his behavior. The ignorant, yellow journaistic media mavens are gonna have a field day. Then will come the lawyers…
Actually the whole issue has only ONE side – the employee side. Don’t blame the infantile mind of the kid. Blame the employees who broke federal laws by bringing him into the cab. If they had not chosen to break the law, the videos wouldn’t exist. Only a moron would expect a 17-year-old to keep his mouth shut, so stop making the kid an equal part of this because he was a “rat”.
The fan didn’t betray me or the railfan community. Not in any way. There’s no secret pact of Omerta between railroaders and railfans concerning breaking federal laws.
And hitting the media with a wide brush calling it “ignorant, yellow” journalists shows your understanding of the business. Find me one newspaper where this story was sensationalized.
First, I am a 45 year veteran of the newsmedia and I feel that my description of them is accurate in how they act, grab onto things, run with them, without investigating. As long as they can make it more sensational than it is, they will…its a lot easier than researching and intverviewing.
As for this kid betraying me, and all other railfans: he certainly did. If I told…at the time…of all the cab rides, free rides, tower visits (even a whole third trick), station attics, caboose rides, etc, I had from the time I was probably 10 through even today, many railroaders would have been in deep trouble. Today there are few railroaders who fans can come in contact with to learn. My first real contact was when I was abut 10 in Penn Sta. NY with my father and a few friends. A trainman jumped up from between a GG1 and a baggage car and asked me if I liked trains…I of course resonded in the affirmative…he told me to stay where a was, went up on the GG1, came back to me and handed me a genuine, kerosene, PRR clear globed lantern! It hooked me. But thanks to this clown no railroader can be that freindly, that supportive, that inspiring. This kid is not the excepetion, but the norm that has creeped across our society and into our hobby causing even greater chasms between techonology and human learning. Yes, those three METRA engineers were wrong. But they did what all railroade
Given today’s FBI roundup of several child and adult prostitution rings I’d think that porn might not be a great career choice just now.
LC
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EmailAs this incident has followed so closely on the tragedy in Chatsworth, CA, and both FRA Emergency Order #26 (cellphone prohibition) and the passage of the Rail Safety Bill (providing a large expansion in the powers and reach of FRA), it is likely that FRA will take action whether by example or by regulation, or both.
Realistically, one should expect that railroads will tighten restrictions and their own rules on non-employees on the property and particularly in and around locomotives. I know of several railroads that have already reacted with more expected to follow.
LC
OK, you entered this information into the discussion as a way of “qualifying” your “insider’s knowledge” of the media. So tell us which media you’ve worked for for 45 years, now that you brought it up.
Now I’m curious. If the media is as bad as you say, why did you stay in the profession for 45 years? And I’m still waiting for you to show me one newspaper where this story was sensationalized, as you claimed above. Just one.
Your thinking is totally flawed. One of the jobs of the news media is to keep an watchful eye on governmental operations (i.e., Metra). If you had ever worked in news, you would have known that.
Here’s where you’re wrong: the media only reported the story after – AFTER – Metra announced the suspensions and why. So stop blaming the media unfairly.
Here’s the ironic part: you’re guilty of doing exactly what you accuse the media. Apparently you have lost your skill of investigating before reporting, because the Chicago media was given the story per protocol. Metra just followed the news playbook used by all entities supported by taxpayer dollars.<
Ya got me…I have done radio, TV, newspaper, and magazine writing and reporting…now semi retired from sales angle (better pay, not controlled by decreasing budgets and a performance attitude of “good enough is good enough or maybe too much”.) Also am in the semi rural East rather than in Chicago or any larger metropolitan area…so, no, I haven’t followed through on anything nor have seen a Chicago newspaper…My perspective is from being in a media situtation where only news releases faxed, phoned, or via emails or snail mail are used as stories and there is no investigative reporting; police stores are picked up only if a reporter or editor is lucky enough to hear a police radio as there are rarely routine calls to police agencies. I’m not kidding. This is the state of newsmedia in many smaller cities and towns outside of major metropolitan areas. Even in the 70’s we did more news, more production, better quality programming in all respects, than what big media conglamorate stations require of their staffs. We used to have to rewrite a story every hour or edition and not use the same one over and over for two or three days!
But these posts are about railroading…
I have to say that even if the media hadn’t gotten hold of this story, those engineers would have gotten more than a reprimand, my speculation based on a long railroad association. I, too, hung around a lot of railroad facilities but it was a different world and, there were a lot more railroad facilities to hang around. Henry6, you just can’t compare then to now and write nostalgically about the past. I’m not fond of some things but think of this. This kid had all sorts of ways to broadcast his lucky day. You might have gotten to tell your buddies. Big difference.
Has anyone on the forum actually seen the video showing the railfan actually operating the moving locomotive?
Nowhere in the articles does it say there was video. The pictures show the kid in the cab but not driving the train.
That BNSF guy is having a well detailed job briefing.