Sometimes we railfans get a bad rap…I know…it seems hard to believe. And yes…some of us do stupid things…but let’s focus on some of the good things. I’ll get the ball rolling by telling something positive I did a few years back…in 2002 I think it was. Back then I was working out of an office in Toronto, and my daily commute took me across a CNR industrial spur that saw sporadic service. One morning, on my way to work, the flashing lights at the crossing activated, and I patiently waited for the train to come…I waited for about three or four minutes…but no train came…and then the flashing lights and bell stopped… I proceeded forward and…oh oh!!!..there’s the train!!! I beat it across the tracks and narrowly missed getting hit by the train. At first…I thought… “Ulrich…you’ve got to wake up…you’ve got to be on the ball…you just about got nailed back there”… But in the back of my mind I felt that maybe that crossing signal wasn’t working properly…But then again that couldn’t be…I’m just a railfan and that’s CN. Fast forward a couple of months now…with the hint of frost in the air by this time…I was again on my way to work and AGAIN I approached that crossing and once again the lights started to flash and the bell sounded. Remembering my experience from a couple of months back I was extra cautious…once again the signal stopped…but this time I waited. The guy behind me blew his horn and gestured, and a city bus coming in the other direction began to move ahead…and then the train came!!! The bus slammed on his brakes and the guy behind me was slumped over his steering wheel (in prayer it looked like)… The train came through with a flagman hanging off the steps…I guess they knew that crossing was defective. As soon as I got to the office I called the CN 24 hour emergency number and told them about it. They said they would look at it…and they called me back to confirm that signal was indeed defective and they would send a repair team o
Just like with cops, lawyers, railroaders, store clerks, indeed just about any profession or hobby has mostly good, decent people; it’s the 1% that are jerks that give the rest a bad name.
BTW, kudos for your action.
Yes, we can happen upon occasions which give us the opportunity to help the railroads and the traveling public out. Two years ago, we were taking one of the Cascades from Seattle to Salem. After I settled my wife at our seats, I walked up to look the train over. On the way back, several people, apparently thinking that I was an Amtrak employee, asked me where their cars were, and I was able to show them where to find the car numbers.
I do not think that I will ever have the opportunity to repeat some help I gave going on forty-one years ago, when the train I was riding (Pullman passenger) stopped in a certain town (I do not remember which one it was). I was in the vestibule, with the upper half of the door open, and saw a lady with a child and a train case looking up as though she wanted to board The porter was apparently eating his lunch and thought that he could get by without being in his car at this station stop. I asked her if she had Pullman space, and she said that she did. I then opened up the rest of the way, swung down with the stepbox, wiped the handrails off, looked at her ticket, got her on board, and closed up. I could not put her in the roomette she had been sold since the porter had already put a short into it, so I put her into another roomette–and when the porter at last came back to the car, I told him what I had done. No thanks from him. I am sure the railroad conductor saw what I did, but he did not say anything to me about it.
Johnny
Agreed, who knows how many unsung heroes have likely saved how many lives.[bow]
Last summer, during our rainy period in Wisconsin (remember the floods?) I noticed a tree had fallen on the CP ROW just west of the infamous Duplainville Diamond. It was not over the rails, but close. I called the CP emergency number and passed on the pertinent info. I made sure to let them know the rails were not blocked. About 20 minutes later I got a call back from the Minnesota office, and the gentleman asked some additional questions, thanked me for taking time to report the issue and let me know he was dispatching a maintainer. I heard the dispatcher give the foul time a while later. He came equipped with the proper equipment and made quick work of it.
Best of all, that box elder sure burned nice last winter…
I now have all of the local rail emergency numbers in my phone. Its the Least we all can do.
Ed
A while back I was on an off-peak commuter train. I was a joy-riding railfan, one of only a handful of passengers There were only 3 in my car. A passenger tried to pull a fast one when the conductor came through to lift tickets. (It was obvious the passenger was on something). The conductor called the police to remove the passenger at the next stop. With that, the passenger became unruly and vocal and eventually lunged at the conductor, with both ending up in a heap on the seat. Another trainman came along and pulled the passenger off his conductor. At the next stop the passenger was removed in handcuffs, the conductor was put in an ambulance for medical attention. I was a witness and gladly got involved with authorities, both with the remaining train crew and later with railroad police via telephone. I was emailed a police inquiry to fill out and I immediately faxed it back to the police. It got the guy locked up.
I know what train crew go through. I appreciate the job they do. I also have done my share of volunteering on excursion trains and I know what we all face when it comes to dealing with the public. You never know when something like this will happen. I have had things happen in my 20+ years of volunteering. Everyone thinks that all these guys do is BS and collect a ticket once in a while. A month later I encountered the conductor who got assaulted. He remembered me and said my testimony made a big difference. That made my day.
getting food for a crew that is stuck out in the middle of nowhere will get you some thank yous.also giving the conductor a ride back to the lead end to save a long walk helps too.
stay safe
joe
Been there, done that on both of those as well.
Yup. Done that as well.
As long as we’re giving ourselves (and each other) some deserved pats on the back…
I was at the park in Rochelle with a family we know, taking them on one of my old train-watching/history tours. Rather than my scanner, I was armed with my company-provided handset, which has much better reception. While we were there, I heard a section foreman inform a westbound freight that he had a stake that had fallen between its flat car and the following car, and was hanging down between there, perhaps held by some strapping. The dispatcher determined that the nearest place it could be attended to was Sterling, and told the train not to exceed 20 m.p.h. (or maybe less) from wherever-it-was to Sterling (this was before Global 3 was completed). At the park, I informed them that I was on the south side of the tracks, and would have a look at the car, if they proceeded slowly (I figured that my friends and I could return the stake to the platform, or, if nothing else, provide an accurate car count as to the location of the problem). The train arrived, moving very slowly, and I found the flat cars. I recognized them as cars I’d humped the previous evening, and had wondered about some of the tiedowns. But there was nothing dangling between the cars, and I informed everyone of this fact after the entire train had passed–the errant stake had fallen off before the train had gotten to Rochelle (section crew who had called in the problem later found it). The train was allowed to resume normal speed (no doubt saving them a significant amount of time over the 35 miles from Rochelle to Sterling).
Of course, a dragging-equipment detector might have caught the problem, requiring the crew to stop and inspect, provided the stake had been dangling low enough to trigger it.
Can’t count the number of times folks have seen me walking a grain train doing the inital terminal air test, and stopped on the side of the road wanting to know if they could give me a ride, or offered a bottle of water or soda…
Personally, I think there are more good honest folks out there than bad one, like the other poster said, it’s the 1% that give the rest a bad rap.