Or: Why Most Railroads Don’t Want to Mess With Steam Locomotives: Witness not one, but two, “videographer” amateurs almost get struck by a freight train while watching UP Big Boy 4014 arrive in Cheyenne:
It’s not bad enough that one person has to actually be PICKED UP BODILY and dragged out of harm’s way, but that he/she KEPT SHOOTING even after the train that almost hit him/her blocks the view…
And people wonder why some railroads want nothing to do with the “attractive nuisance” of steam locomotives or special movements…
Perhaps no one should be allowed near the track until he learns what the series of short blasts means–GET BACK FROM THE TRACK!!!
I have seen something similar at the station in Sacramento–as #6 was coming in, a man was standing on the yellow band and the engineer was warning him; I was too far from him for him to hear me shouting to tell him to get back; he did step back before the engine reached him.
Saw something similar happen in Owosso in 2009 - guy standing too close to the track for comfort (he “stood his ground” and didn’t get hit, but…). Engineer tooted at him several times, and he didn’t move.
I’ve got a pretty good picture of NKP785 returning from the all-day trip - and this guy is in the shot.
I think I’d have picked up the offending idiot from the front and made sure I ruined his shot…
It was meant as sarcasm, for those that can read between the lines.
Regardless of who has the right or not the right to be somewhere, there is a certain common sense element that needs to be examined here. Since the kid obviously lacked awareness of the situation, why didn’t the train crew take up the slack? It took a bystander to take decisive action because of multiple fools, including, in my opinion, the train crew. It was not as if they came around a curve at 70 M.P.H. and there was nothing they could do … Even though nobody got physically hurt, the train crew has to live with the what ifs for the rest of their lives, and that may be the hardest thing of all.
It’s got to be 20-plus years now, but I remember reading an article, possibly in “Trains”, possibly “Vintage Rails” or “Locomotive and Railway Preservation” written by a VERY irate professional railroader absolutely lambasting idiot railfans who put themselves and others in danger so they could “get that one shot that nobody else has!”
Things don’t seem to have changed that much, and since that kids dad took so long in hoisting him out of harms way I suppose in his case the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree.
Hey UP, go ahead and squash a few next time, the rest will get the message!
Harsh? Well, I’m just fed up with idiots who ruin things for the rest of us with their irresponsibility, either railfanning or other things as well.
Wait until UP’s legal department sees this.
And if you think I’m tough, you should read some of the You Tube comments. Hoo boy!
And how about that voice in the background, “They’re gonna let that intermodal go and block our shots!” My heart bleeds for you pal.
I get a shiver every time I watch that. If you look closely - doesn’t that look like possibly a young pre-teen, early teen boy? Looks like maybe Dad reaches out to tag him and tell him to move and then walks off. And the way they moved him out of the way and his reaction. Just didn’t react the way i think an adult would.
I don’t understand why that guy saved the IDIOT from winning a Darwin award. For shear sutpidity this comes VERY close to taking the cake. he deserves to be taken out of the gene pool and relegated to the same status as the DO-DO bird. Extinct.
I’m kinda surprised that the UP gave the IM train permission to proceed through all those FRNs.
OTOH, why should UP delay a train for a few loonies? Except that if one of those dolts did get squashed, the the train would be delayed that much more…
I’ve sure seen a lot of stupid things happen around the railroad over my career, and I must say that this one does place in the top 100.