Join the discussion on the following article:
UP issues trespassing warning to professional photographers
Warnings of danger on the tracks should be more specific, including advisories as to how something as large and noisy as a train can sneak up on the unsuspecting. The majority of the time all you read is how dangerous it is to be on the tracks. Meanwhile strangers to rails assume that you can’t miss a train coming and that they are not so dumb as that. I can attest to being alive because I follow such basics as not walking on tracks. One midnight hour when waiting for Amtrak I was walking along the platform close to the tracks with my back to the nearest track when I noticed a bright light coming from behind me. I turned around in time to see a freight train within fifty feet of me moving at about 60 miles per hour. In spite of the quiet night I never heard it. Had I been calmly walking on the tracks I would only have had time to see what hit me. Trains can be shockingly quiet unless their horns are blaring. This and related facts should be included in warnings. Simply stating you may get hit goes in one ear and out the other with those inexperienced with railroads. Stating the dangers leading to such accidents could assist in getting the unknowing to think twice about walking on the right of way.
The tracks in the photo accompanying this article appear to be abandoned or out of service. If so, doesn’t seem like a good editorial decision.